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Craig Ferguson Humiliates Ben Silverman
By Nikki Finke | Category: Video | Thursday December 11, 2008 @ 7:02pm
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That is brilliant. I have heard Craig is a great guy from numerous folks. I have heard the opposite about Silverman. Good to know that someone is calling him on the carpet. He seems creepy too.
Poor Jay, what is he thinking? With Zucker and Silverman in charge he should be running as fast as possible to Robert Iger and beg for a new late-night show. It’s going to be awful.
Aside from the cameo on Entourage, this is the only other time I’ve heard a Silverman sound bite… he sounds like he’s high… which explains a lot.
heh heh heh heh hehhhhhhhhhh
omg, i spend too much time on this site!
I’ve never liked Craig Ferguson… until now.
Amazing how Leno reacted to that sick cackling just two feet away from him.
I guess for $30+ million a year you can suck it up & take anything, even from a total incompetent like Ben the Fool!
I think Jay got there first. Yikes.
I don’t think Craig Ferguson humiliated Silverman, as much as Silverman humiliated himself.
It is a remarkably creepy laugh – Dwight Frye probably sounded like that after some reefer.
@ haha
You said it.
Silverman’s pasted-on Skeletor photo smile in the press isn’t enough? His laugh is “Sideshow Bob” creepy too?
There’s a stoner laugh for you. Maybe they should nominate him for a golden globe as well as James Franco.
Bye NBC…
Ben Silverman is clueless… and a combination with Jeff Zucker, NBC is truly doomed.
At least they were smart enough to lay off Teri Weinberg, she was completely ineffective. I remember getting notes from her on a show that were a ridiculous waste of time. Her prized Kath & Kim actually getting a back 9 was just stupid. How could the network even make a decision to pick up one of the worst shows on television, yet cancel perfectly good shows?
These are the people making decisions that impact our lives. Scary folks.
I love Craig… This seriously wasn’t tampered with? It really was Silverman? good lord…
Great Work Craig. Equaling the horrible Ben Silverman to the government of Zimbabwe is priceless. For the record, there you need a semi-truck full of cash just to buy some bread. Ben Silverman is the NBC equivalent of Zimbabwe.
To Anonymous — December 12, 2008 @ 12:04 am
Actually the full press conference is available on MSNBC.com (at least it is for now, maybe when they read this blog post of Nikki’s they’ll take it down) and no it wasn’t tampered with by Ferguson or his people…Silverman mostly sits there during the press conference twitching and nervously jiggling in his seat, laughing way too hard at everything Jay says (the laughter after the hooker line being much too enthusiastic as if Silverman could really relate to the anecdote…the press and Marc Graboff didn’t find that joke nearly so funny as Ben did given they didn’t laugh at all) and when Silverman did answer questions he didn’t make much sense either using buzzwords he just made up and smiling at his own cleverness or losing his train of thought along the way. Must be truly embarassing. sad and painful for the people in NBC Publicity to have to deal with Silverman. I do feel bad for them.
And here I thought Mike Judge’s Beavis laugh was an exaggeration, a dreamed up parody of a slacker teen…Silverman clearly is the inspiration for Beavis right down to the laugh. Beavis is blonde so Silverman the fartknocker won’t recognize that it’s him being so viciously and brilliantly parodied.
Finally that comparison Craig Ferguson made between Ben Silverman and Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is almost accurate. Silverman is more like Zimbabwe’s finance minister Gideon Gono while Jeff Zucker is closer to Mugabe. But Ferguson sure picked the right analogy comparing the people who are running a once decent broadcast network into the ground to the people who are running what used to be one of the better off African countries into oblivion. I laughed at that one probably because that’s all you can do when you see something once so great being senselessly decimated.
My respect for Craig Ferguson as a host just went up 1000%.
Maybe that Letterman guy should just quit phoning his show in, and let Ferguson take over on CBS at 11:35p ET. He owns the friggin’ production company anyway, so WTF?
he’s not listening; he’s probably laughing in disbelief, perhaps b4 they went on he was told, this move will save so much money nbc will extend him a year.
I don’t know Ben. I only know a little about the things he has done in his professional life.
It is amazing how much vitriol he attracts.
I am sure he is a prick and it doesn’t look like he is turning things around at nbc. But you all are missing the point. He is a huge success because he has managed to play the people he has worked for.
In this town it is less about actual achievement and more about perception. And perception is self created.
So by that measure, he is a big success.
You (yes, and me): reading DHD “news” over a cold cup of coffee.
Ben: Skiing, partying, making millions.
That’s Hollywood.
So, wallow in bitterness and jealousy if you must. But if you really want to get ahead in this town, study what he did and how he continues to remain on top.
To the poster who said he’d heard that Craig F is a nice guy, well, there’s two schools of thought on that. I know a producer who worked with him on a movie and said he was a consummate professional, on time, knew his lines, worked well with the other actors, joked with the crew. On the other hand, I have a friend who is a longtime CBS exec who was infuriated when Ferguson had a rooftop smoking area at TVC eliminated because people were smoking within 20 feet of his offices (air-conditioned offices with sealed windows, mind you), and regardless of your opinion of smokers, it was insulting and vindictive and served no real purpose except to throw his weight around. Even non-smokers were put off by this, because TV City doesn’t really have a “break room,” and the rooftop was a great place to socialize and hang out until he had it removed.
However, I will note one thing: nice guy or not, Craig Ferguson could do a better job running NBC than the current regime. His dog could do a better job. My dog could do a better job. As a GE shareholder (don’t laugh), I’ve written to investor relations many times complaining about Silverman’s hire and I never get even a form email back. But it is an excellent development that Angela Bromstad is coming back to LA to run the studio side. Hopefully she’ll soon have Silverman’s job too. She is a civilized human being, smart, has paid her dues, and knows the difference between a good show and a bad one.
He is so underrated…Ferguson not Silverman!
So brilliant to see Craig Ferguson call out Ben Silverman for the creepy ineffective stoner loser he is!….How can NBC keep him around and let him run the network into the ground?
Hysterical!!! That’s a COKE HEADS laugh. LMAO!!!!
DMS: “So, wallow in bitterness and jealousy if you must. But if you really want to get ahead in this town, study what he did and how he continues to remain on top.”
This is why we struggle so much in this business and in this country. People like this.
Don’t criticize Ben Silverman, get busy imitating him. Run out and screw all your peers and colleagues. Ignore anything approaching quality, fiduciary responsibility and intellect. Back-stab, narc out and destroy everyone around you and you too can be a drugged-out, clueless, annoying asswipe.
But you’ll have money in the here and now and that’s all that matters.
The conservatives are a bunch of extremists but they do have one thing right, we have lost our moral center.
Silverman, Zucker and any other successful person in this or any business is not to be admired for their money, cleverness or ruthless behavior.
If you don’t feel your integrity, nobility and yes morality trumps ski weekends, cash and power obtained by negative behavior then you’re soulless and of no use to the species.
The value of positive human behavior is not measured in dollars, it’s calculated by perceptions that are not tangible, but spiritual. And of this means nothing to you then you’re worse that soulless, you’re Godless.
But you can always be friends with “DMS” at least until he screws you for a nickle.
Ferguson has always been a funny and classy guy. Did anyone see his show where he recognized his mom who recently passed away? Really poignant and heart felt. So glad he recognizes Executive losers like we all do.
Letterman used to pull few punches back in the NBC days, especially when he’d have Howard Stern on, glad to see Ferguson keepin’ it real…
I do know Ben. He is actually a very nice guy. He’s got a lot of hangers on but Ben has never done anything really bad to anyone that I am aware of.
Thank you.
Omi. That sure sounds like a high-laff to me (remember that guy in DIE HARD? U know what I mean…). and agreed with DMS’s comment above: we can say whatever we want about Silverman, but bottom line is that he’s traveling the world, partying his ass off, getting paid a boatload of $$$, his job is seemingly made of teflon… yeah, I’d be giggling too.
To the person that Knows Ben… nice guy, that’s great. He’s sinking the ship at NBC with Zucker. How does this make him a nice guy? He’s managing to make the company look really bad, hurting the employees because of the decisions that HE makes.
He’s taking us all down with him. I can’t help to feel bitter about it.
Also, I don’t see them pushing back to G.E. very much. Between G.E. revamping production and post to meet their business model, and then having Silverman and Zucker driving the boat at Universal, we’re crashing hard.
When is the relief coming to actually put good programming back onto NBC? NBC had a good couple of seasons until Silverman came on board.
If he’s such a good guy, why doesnt he step down and get someone creative into his spot, so he stops hurting all the employees?
@retired: your CBS exec pal might have been pissed that Ferguson killed the smoking area on the roof, but those of us who actually work near that area were thrilled. Having to walk through a haze of smoke to get anywhere was gross, and we applauded CF for making it happen. (Others had tried and failed.) Perhaps your exec friend found it really hard to walk an extra 30 feet away to the other part of roof where the smokers moved after Craig’s coup.
In any case, I loved that Ferguson had the guts to go there.
Yes, Craig is a nice guy. One of the few actors to actually say hello and engage PA’s on the set of a show I worked on. You just got the feeling that he was raised right, and hollywood hasen’t changed that. And Silverman could be a nice guy, but that laugh, and his douchey embrace of celebrity make him seem like a dick. He is successful, but I think that is more of an accident and luck.
what is so brilliant or “Classy” about a mean spirited personal attack on anyone? This is pretty much Talk Soup level humor. All these kudos make me a little bit sick.
u make me laugh louis haha wake up!!! how was that a personnel attack?!? he was just pointing the truth…like if i said bush is an idiot or obama is full of sh!t…chill, it is comedy, I’m sure you were laughing along w/ all the other retards at leno’s corny jokes about everybody else
Dog, The point I”m making is that it’s a weak joke and it’s base. And the reactioin here is that somehow he did something “Brilliant” and someone took the opportunity to say what a classy guy he is. I agree with you but there’s certainly nothing great about what he did here. It was cheap and boring.