Everyone is all up Ben Silverman's ass this morning … and we're loving it. The NBC Entertainment chief led the network's Television Critics Association tour of what's to come in the fall season. Things you already knew: A celeb version of The Apprentice is coming (sans Rosie, it turns out); Isaiah Washington is will be part of Bionic Woman; Jerry Seinfeld will do a guest spot on 30 Rock; Ben's Reveille-owned American Gladiators is maybe a go, maybe not. And "the collective flurry of press releases," it turns out, "was sweeping enough to distract reporters from the fact that NBC remains a network deep in fourth place."

Also: Ben is a fidgety, rambling guy who should not be allowed to field hard questions.

Reports AdAge:

The opening question tossed out to newly installed entertainment co-chairman: "What do you think about a company that pays an executive $6 million and fires him a month later?" The questioning reporter then added, "Is that a good company?"

Mr. Silverman was taken aback, but he managed to stay on message, gamely saying he had only just arrived and couldn't address the regime of his predecessor, Kevin Reilly [...]

[Silverman's co-chair Marc] Graboff didn't exactly offer a surfeit of candor about their predecessor, either.

"Let me address that if I could," Mr. Graboff said in a helpful and serious tone, "because I think you're obviously referring to Kevin Reilly, and I just want to kind of hit that on the head a bit. He wasn't fired."

The press room perked up, eager for clarification.

"What happened was when Ben became available, about three months after we made Kevin's new deal, we jumped at the opportunity to bring Ben on board to the company. Kevin, when that happened, realized or determined, frankly, that there was just no role for him at the company and decided to move on."

At this, the entire press corps burst into laughter.

Somehow, that series of events got toned down and was presented much more casually in the NYT report penned by Silverman BFF Bill Carter.