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Jeff Zucker says NBC Entertainment and studio co-chairman Ben Silverman will sign a new deal to stay at the company. Zucker told Broadcasting & Cable the non-news -- hey, this has been expected for months now since Zucker can't admit he erred in hiring Silverman in the first place -- as part of a candid Q&A that runs in the December 15 issue. I never thought General Electric, a company that used to prize only excellence, would now reward failure. Then again, Zucker keeps managing for margins, not programming for ratings. And now NBC stands for Nothing But Crap.
Zucker: Ben Silverman Staying At NBC
By Nikki Finke | Category: Networks | Friday December 12, 2008 @ 11:59am PST
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Except for QUALITY shows like Chuck, The Office and 30 Rock.
Hollywood has a certain nack for letting people fall up.
The news that every NBC station longs to hear. More of the same fantastic programming to help our late local news flourish against our CBS, FOX, and ABC competitors.
Kudos to the peacock.
Leno rocks!
And the Nominees for the 2008 Fail Upward Award are:
- Ben Silverman for running a network into dead last, being a complete creep with no business sense or television taste and refusing to spend any time doing any work…
- Ben Silverman for being as indecisive about his shows and hiring of execs as he is about his preference for men or women and blow or weed…
- Ben Silverman for making sure anyone and everyone Aunderneath him takes the fall for his pathetic attempts to program a network while making sure this all translates into his own personal gain
Note: Toby Emmerich wasn’t nominated since he can’t actually make any decisions including wiping his ass without telling Warner Brothers.
Silverman is a thousand times more talented than this site or any news media outlet is giving him credit for. When he was on the other side of the table as a producer, there was no one better at teeing up a room before a pitch. As a writer, you just cannot ask for a better partner than him. NBC was a sinking ship when he first came in (kind of like blaming Obama in six months for the Bush administrations failures). Zucker is wise to keep Ben on board and not succumb to industry and media pressure. Ben is a guy who has always walked between the raindrops and if you want any kind of assurances in this business, having a guy like him to help sell you or your company is a win in the long haul. I suggest you people give this wine a bit more time before you judge it.
GE is clinging to Zucker and Silverman like the GOP is clinging to Sarah Palin.
I wouldn’t have a problem with either of them if they would come correct and admit their failures instead of spinning them like some sort of “grand vision.”
Silverman has been hampered by the Writer’s Strike, true, but I get the impression that there isn’t a lot in the pipeline either. That’s on him.
Why NBC doesn’t pick off some development talent from ABC, CBS or Time/Warner is beyond me.
Silverman is the best salesman in the TV biz. Not a surprise he’s been able to sell himself so well.
NBC= no body cheaper
I have to agree with “Quality” that NBC does have a handful of good shows. To Chuck, The Office, and 30 Rock, I’d add Heroes (most of the time) and Life. Of course, with the exception of The Office, Silverman has no connection to these shows and wasn’t around when they were greenlit. Nevertheless, by this time next year, I’d expect that 2 or 3 of these will be canceled and replaced with updated versions of Remington Steele or Alf. Better yet, a new reality show: Who Wants to Program NBC?
Ferguson was right, he is to NBC what Mugabe is to Zimbabwe. You just can’t get rid of him.
Now I will give Silverman props for being a good salesman. He pitched all those show from Europe and Latin America to the USA with Reveille, he was able to pitch himself into the NBC gig, but he just not cut out for the executive suite. Not everybody is.
Now there are three possible reasons why Zucker’s keeping him.
1. He can’t admit that he made a mistake.
2. Zucker’s keeping him to make sure that no one who can potentially replace Zucker himself gets any seniority at NBC.
3. Silverman has incriminating and/or embarrassing pictures of Zucker the Board of Directors of GE.
It an embarrassment…enough said
Chuck, The Office and 30 Rock all suck.
How is it that so many of us readers… people without the MBAs or fancy careers… even a nobody like me in Iowa… can look at the past several NBC schedules and see so many improvements that could have been made? Ditto with ABC lately; TV is always a risk but their are smart concepts such as counterprogramming and using lead-ins that help. It doesn’t take a rocket genius to figure out that family-friendly shows like Eli Stone go earlier in the night, that shows like Medium are consistent enough to be treated better, and that ABC Wednesdays should not have been returned in tact after months off the air save a few Private Practice repeats.
I think NBC’s current problems go back to their hastily re-shuffled schedule after ABC moved Grey’s to Thursdays (back when that net was smarter)… whose bright ideas was it to have the Biggest Loser on the same night as two new comedies and one new drama? Perhaps they go back even further, when they broke up the Thursday comedy block.
Silverman–the Warren Littlefield for a new generation.
Dumb and Dumber ride again. Time to dump whatever GE stock is left.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!
You are right they’ve admitted pure defeat with this
renewal. It’s better to save their own asses, but let NBC fail. how incredibly tragic.
Now I get it. All this time I was told the point of my employ was to benefit the company…make them money…make them look good. Obviously, that was all backwards thinking. Had I only screwed around, showed up once in a blue moon and used the words ‘drugs’ and ‘recreational’ in the same sentence, I’d have had my contract renewed! If only someone had tipped me off.
Chuck? Quality? Okay, I get it – you’re being sarcastic, right? (I hope so anyway.)
NBC is jockeying for fifth place now, and GE’s Immelt seems to be just fine with that. Otherwise, Zucker and Silverman would have been canned long ago. CBS’ Moonves and ABC’s Iger must be laughing their heads off, or else they have candid photos of Zucker, Silverman and Immelt. There is just no other explanation.
Quality, let’s see how many of those shows are around next season. I say one.
Well, this is a blow to quality television but it’s a victory for quality Deadline Hollywood Daily stories! Embrace the horror!
I guess “failure” is the new “success.”
I mean this is almost a joke at this point. It’s like you always had to ask yourself about the original Office, “who would ever hire David Brent?”
this is crazy….how has this guy been able to fail upwards?
“Except for QUALITY shows like Chuck, The Office and 30 Rock.”
But, wouldn’t those shows be the exceptions that PROVE the rule?
GE is a savvy entertainemnt company.
Time to short their stock.
However much we want to make fun of Ben Silverman, the truth is he was actually involved in developing hit shows before he went to NBC.
True, he was overseeing their adaption them from well established templates —- but many a “translation” hasn’t worked.
He may be in the wrong job but at least he seems to understand hit TV shows.
Unfortunately, the same can not be said of Jeff Zucker. What has Jeff added to NBC other than “supersized episodes” and undeserved arrogance ?
Jeff micromanages everything and them blames all around him when something fails. He completely neuters his lieutenants by inserting #2’s who have loyalty only to him.
Everyone at NBC is sitting in their offices reading this column because no one from above communicates anything.
NBC used to stand for quality and how true it is that it is now “nothing but crap”
Very sad
NBC
NoBodyCares
BEST IDEA EVER:
Ben should host SNL -even though it feels way too inside, the network would get tons of press and the curiosity factor would be huge -Plus it would show that Ben is actually a likeable guy who’s quirky enough for the show, and I bet viewers would start rooting for the network again -agreed?
let us not forget that during the WGA strike, one of the GE executives couldn’t understand why residuals are paid out and said during a meeting “We don’t understand why we need to pay writers every time an episode airs somewhere — it’s not like we get paid every time someone turns on a light bulb.”
Silverman is fine. He’s astounding in a room and he’s very bright and sharp and fast on his feet. But even he cannot save what’s happening to NBC now.
Maybe Turtle Bay books can put Brandon Tartikoff’s autobio “The Last Great Ride” back into print and I’ll send copies to Jeff and Ben.
-RnsW
Silverman would be lucky to do half as well as Littlefield.
Remember that Littlefield, even though he clearly didn’t get the show, kept Sienfeld on the air. He chose Leno over Letterman, which may not have been the critics choice, but has clearly shown itself to be what the audience prefers and thus better for the network by far. He kept hits running and grew their audiences — Friends, ER — which can’t be said for the biggest NBC hit in recent years (Heroes.) I think Will & Grace was also developed while he was in charge. He presided over a time when Must See TV actually lived up to the name. Did he get lucky at times? Sure. But he also made some smart choices.
Can Silverman stay the same? Can Zucker? (Who deserves most of the blame here as he’s been in charge during the entire collapse of the network.)
I’ll preface this by saying I hate NBC, hate Zucker and I firmly believe NBC (for years) has led the destruction of scripted tv, especially comedy.
Hell, I don’t even like Silverman, his unimaginative rise to the top, or that he defines smarmy like no other.
But how the hell is Silverman to blame for NBC’s latest embarrassments? He was rushed into last year’s development season, it was promptly destroyed by a strike and this is his first uninterrupted season.
It’s Zucker who’s to blame. HE destroyed NBC, not only with his “vision” and ensuing programming choices, but for a stunning inability to identify talented vs. untalented executives. Emeril, Coupling, Inside Schwartz, “supersizing” episodes…
Ancier & Sassa may have begun the downturn, but an argument could be made that no one – even deliberately – could sink a network as effectively as Jeff Zucker.
This thread gives me hope that NBC will launch a new reality series. “Who Wants to Program a Network?”
You find five people from different walks of life, a stay-at-home mom (who is hot), a blue collar worker (who is burly-perhaps a minority), a nubile professional (former bikini model wouldn’t hurt), a college student who was injured in Iraq (maybe missing a limb – but still studly), and a developmentally-disabled or autistic person (hopefully photogenic). They take a look at a bunch of pilots and each get to program one night. We watch them get pitched by writers and make notes.
In the end, we don’t know who chose which shows or nights. Whomever programed the night with the highest ratings (compared to normal NBC ratings for that night, divided by cost of programming) becomes the new NBC chief programer.
This is great stuff. It gives 30 Rock so much great material to choose from. Wait… Nobody would believe it.
One last thing about Leno at 10pm….
NBC says it will not beat the CSI type shows but the Leno show will be very profitable compared to scripted programs.
BUT Jay Leno has been number one in his slot for 15 years and is quite wealthy.
How long will Jay want to just make more money and come in 3rd or 4th in his time slot in the ratings?
This is the best way to tarnish a great legacy, by not going out number one.
Nikki,
Reality TV has peaked. Ben Silverman is the founding member of the William Morris reality TV juggernaut (Survivor which he represented its State debut). Now, here comes the brilliance of Ben Silverman – he actually started to develop scripted shows at his company, (The Office and Ugly Betty) this is what he couldn’t and haven’t done for NBC. The shelf life of reality TV is like OJ dating another legally blonde from Orange County and killing her in a jealous rage. It’s dead in the water.
And always has been – when was the last time anyone bought a Dancing with the Stars DVD? Or saw a rerun of a reality show that got over a 2.2 rating share?
What made the late Brandon Tartikoff’s career was the Cosby Show and Hills Street Blues – both scripted shows that revolutionized television with a twist on the old theme – if you build great TV – the people will watch.
Then came Warren Littlefield who took a chance with extending Seinfeld for one more year in hopes of building an audience. (a little arm twisting from Castle Rock’s Rob Reiner didn’t hurt) Oh, yes and Littlefield he had a little help from some FRIENDS…
Ben Silverman and Jeffery Zucker’s problem is that they both has gotten to comfortable with news and reality programing and steered away from funny and cutting edge drama. They have leaped onto the bandwagon of DEAD TV.
Granted what makes TV great is the spontaneity of the moment. The almost live TV format of the talk shows can be the spark that makes a current event the talk at the water cooler the next morning.
Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show was the launching pad for all comedians into sitcoms superstars but this farm team for the networks was put of to pasture by Jay Leno and other talk show hosts mandate to take their future competition out of the market place by not allowing comics and career on their shows. The Networks are left to suffer with no talent pool to draw from for its future stars —
Silverman and Zucker had better start thinking about how Brandon and Littlefield saved NBC and not about the CRACK OF TV – the reality shows if they are to survive the audience stampede to other entertainment platforms.
By the way, NEWS is not entertain so get that out of your heads.
Chris Jackson – former and still latch-key kid.
Yikes is completely right.
When is GE going to stop empowering Jeff Zucker’s destruction of NBC and network television as we know it ?
All through this strange episode in the history of NBC, all that Zucker has implied is “margins not ratings.” Perhaps he is getting pressure from Immelt for this thinking (who has some problems of his own in other areas – check out that Fortune mag article). But the bigger question raised is, “what IS the nature of a TV network now? Tied to a big conglom, does it have to be a place where scripted TV belongs? Perhaps longing to hold onto the ‘tradition of quality’ is simply saying, ‘we need to keep things they way they are because they’ve always been that way’ instead of accepting the reality of 21st Century media. Maybe instead of the ruin of TV, it’s simply evolving at the hands of Zucker and Silverman (though it seems hard for many to get around his personal life interfering with his job the way it is).
How can you guys forgot about My Name Is Earl? It is much better this season. Maybe they have some new voices in their writer room. Whatever their doing they should keep it up because season 3 sucked!
DanOregon wrote:
This thread gives me hope that NBC will launch a new reality series. “Who Wants to Program a Network?”
You find five people from different walks of life, a stay-at-home mom (who is hot), a blue collar worker (who is burly-perhaps a minority), a nubile professional (former bikini model wouldn’t hurt), a college student who was injured in Iraq (maybe missing a limb – but still studly), and a developmentally-disabled or autistic person (hopefully photogenic). They take a look at a bunch of pilots and each get to program one night. We watch them get pitched by writers and make notes.
In the end, we don’t know who chose which shows or nights. Whomever programed the night with the highest ratings (compared to normal NBC ratings for that night, divided by cost of programming) becomes the new NBC chief programer.
Dan, add a bitterly fighting gay couple to the mix, and you’ve got a show that will outdo “My Name is Earl” and “Kath and Kim” on Thursday nights for NBC any time of the year.