NBC programming chief Ben Silverman, known for making a killing by selling projects to competing networks and, um, his love for The Party, hit up the Los Angeles Lakers game last night — and managed to spoil things.
Not for the Lakers (they beat the Denver Nuggets 122-107), but for seatmates Garry Shandling and Sony Pictures Television president Steve Mosko. We hear a preppy-dressed Silverman sat next to these two near the courtside seats and spent a good portion of the game running Mosko's ear off. "Mosko just listened, nodded, smiled a bit, while Silverman went on and on and on," says a witness. "It was one of those conversations you can tell by observing for a few minutes, one person is waaaay too into it and trying to get so many points across, while the other is just patiently listening and waiting for the air to run out."
When Ben finally left to grab a drink, Mosko turned to Shandling, who "hilariously rolled his eyes at the whole thing, and they sat back down for the start of the 2nd half." Silverman eventually returned, seven minutes into the half. Hey, the bathroom line can be long!
NBC programming chief Ben Silverman, here with Brooke Shields and Marie Claire EIC Joanna Coles, is set to unveil his fall scheduling slate, his first that's entirely his own since taking over the gig. Expect lots of original programming hours. Expect a devotion to "escapism" programming. Expect a whole slew of new series. Expect everything to change by the time leaves start to fall. [Variety]
NBC Universal is breaking its television studio into two separate units: Law & Order's Universal Media Studios and a new unit for USA Network and Sci Fi Channel chief Bonnie Hammer. (The easier to tell them off.) That means lessened control for Katherine Pope, Marc Graboff, and Ben Silverman. (The easier for him to find time to party.) [LAT]
That Elisabeth Murdoch is the daughter of Rupert, received $100 million in News Corp. stock from a family trust, counts Sony as a an investor, can call up her daddy in the middle of the night and ask him to buy a TV show franchise, is married to PR maestro Matthew Freud, and went to Vassar … makes her a media darling. She is also, by some estimation, and entrepreneur, an industry manifest where relationships matter, like the one with Ben Silverman she leveraged into a $125 million buyout of his Reveille production company.
All of this you knew.
About the only surprising thing you'll find out reading her Times profile – that is if you haven't already met her – is that she does not speak with an Australian accent; she speaks American-ese.
Now that Marshall Herskovitz has had a chance to see how his web series Quarterlife would perform on broadcast television – it, um, barely performed; only 3.9m people tuned in to watch – he's doing a little backtracking: The series should have never appeared on network TV, and is instead much more suited for cable. How come? Because "the lighting" is not that of a traditional TV show. Um, okay. NBC programming chief Ben Silverman says the effort was "so worth the try." Which actually might be a bit of good foreshadowing fortune, since he's had similar sentiments about Friday Night Lights and, while that show has performed poorly on NBC, might yet live on with a cable partner.
Ugly Betty and The Office production house Reveille was unloaded by its owner, and NBC's programming co-chief, Ben Silverman, to none other than a Murdoch. Rupert's daughter Elisabeth paid a $125 million tab for the privilege, taking controlling of one NBC's most formidable programming vehicles. Just as daddy would've wanted. [LAT]
In Ben Silverman's world, the phrase "conflicts of interest" only applies when he's on the prowl with sidekick B.J. Novak and they both happen to be interested in the same lady friend. The rest of the media world, of course, considers Ben's gig as co-chair of NBC programming and his ownership of the independent production outfit Reveille – which, with ABC's Ugly Betty and F/X's 30 Days, program-rolls NBC's competition – a conflict of interest. So be it!
But now Silverman can use all that complaining as Topic A in selling Reveille — for a cool $200 million. Who's the buyer? The Shine Group, run by a one Elisabeth Murdoch. Her name sound familiar? Perhaps it's because she's the daughter of Rupert Murdoch, who, some might say, is also the competition.
[Image: Esquire]
Cate Blanchett's posturing isn't the only thing inside this month's W. There's also a chat with NBC's new-ish programming chief Ben Silverman, wherein he responds to rumors that he was responsible for leaking his new appointment. CONTINUED »
• Rupert Murdoch buys Dow Jones. For real, this time.
• Which kinda makes this whole "Bancrofts Close to Accepting Murdoch Bid" story sort of outdated. Then again, who cares? It's over!!
• After her catastrophic television debut last week (a.k.a. the funniest thing we've seen all month) the big question on everyone's mind is: will Merry Miller will get another on-air opportunity? "Perhaps, if it's done on tape, but not live," says Debbie Downer Jessica Stedman-Guff, a.k.a. exec producer of ABCNewsNow. Sigh. The show's over, people.
• Ad sales/readership for Women's Health have never been, well, healthier.
• Jeff Zucker on Ben Silverman: "Ben brings great enthusiasm, optimism and energy, so it's always exciting to have Ben around because his enthusiasm and excitement is boundless." How…enthusiastic. And exciting!
• Citizen journalism: it's not just for underfunded barely read news publications anymore.
• Michael Moore, chubby liberal nutjob or marketing genius?
• "Newspapers read like they're put out by terrified bureaucracies," writes Columbia Journalism Review. Um, that's because they are, says Dean Starkman (a.k.a. "Obvious Guy.")
• The new TVNewser reveals his top-secret identity! Oh no, wait—we already knew that.
• Jack Shafer fought Bill Keller, and Bill Keller won. Easily.
• Internet video advertising costs projected to reach an estimated 4.3 billion over the next four years, thanks in large part to CNN.
• WaPo praises Steve McPherson for having "great programming instincts" and a "low hooey threshold." Which explains why the guy can't stand Ben Silverman.
Who cares if Barry Diller is bleeding cash on his failed attempt at buying back some Expedia stock? As Kim Masters explains, his deal with NBC programming chief Ben Silverman's Reveille is going to leave Diller flush with cash should any of the production outfit's TV tries pan out. And, given Reveille's sucesses (The Office, Ugly Betty), we've got a hankering Diller is gonna be just fine. The Expedia misstep may have cost him nearly $15 million (need it be said, that's barely a dent for his kind), but his favorable deal with Silverman should more than make up for it.
CONTINUED »
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. CONTINUED »
Yesterday, we told you Ben Silverman's hatching a plan to court famous people (and, um, the cast of The Office) for an extra special ratings stunt all-celebrity edition of The Apprentice. And now, we hear Trump's cordially invited his arch-nemesis, Rosie O'Donnell to participate, with disingenuous promises that she won't be unfairly targeted and/or fired in the meanest, most dehumanizing way possible.
"If Rosie would like to do it, she would be treated very fairly," Trump tells PEOPLE. "Don't forget her show got the highest ratings in December and January when she and I went at it. So I think it would be very good for Rosie. And she would be treated very fairly."
Persuasive words! But will Rosie take the bait?
Kim Masters isn't letting newly inducted NBC programming chief Ben Silverman get off so easy. The Reveille production guru supposedly downgraded his role there to take the top gig at the Peacock at Jeff Zucker's begging, and yet Silverman is still very much in control of much of what's coming out of his company's pipeline — including projects that are appearing on other networks. CONTINUED »
Ever wondered how the cast of The Office would fare on an all-celebrity edition of The Apprentice? We sure have! In fact, lately, we've been thinking about it a little bit more every day.
As we see it, the annoyingly sycophantic Dwight Schrute would quickly tick off The Donald with his transparent ass-kissing and self-promotional banter. Meanwhile, Jim and Pam would be too busy pranking Ivanka and debating whether or not to make out to seriously compete, while the Regional Manager of the Scranton Branch of Dunder-Mifflin would undoubtedly ruffle Trump's feather's with his overinflated sense of business savvy, then offend him with some sort of wayward racist or sexist remark in a misguided (and socially inept) attempt at humor.
Fortunately, programming guru Ben Silverman is already well on his way towards making our Office/Donald Trump crossover premise a reality (show).
We love a Radar hatchet job, especially when they're aimed at us in the form of email warfare, even after we help them with stories they're working on! But alas, it's not about us today, but about NYT media beater Bill Carter, who Radar henchman John Cook claims might be too close to his sources. Well, John doesn't claim it; critics do: "Now some critics wonder whether his close ties to networks make him the wrong guy to cover the cesspool that is show business."
Ah yes, those critics! CONTINUED »
1. Donald Trump loves him.
2. He has his own chimes to make the "N-B-C" dings. And he brings those chimes to meetings, supposedly.
3. His fav word, or at least his most over-used word, is "frenemies."
[NYT]
New NBC programming chief Ben Silverman is not using pot, coke, heroin, PCP, or Duck Brand Rubber Cement to get high. Well, it sounds like it's still possible about that last one — he only took (and passed) a drug test after much ballyhooing from inside NBC about making sure the party boy adheres to the same level of responsibility as other staffers.
Good thing, too, 'cause it's not like we wanted more pot humor in Scrubs.
Without Breasts There is No Paradise.
That's the name of the first show new NBC programming chief Ben Silverman has purchased since Jeff Zucker brought him on, like, 5 seconds ago. To be sure, that's the English translation; the original Columbian version of the show is called Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso, which, of course, is completely different in meaning. CONTINUED »
Newly installed NBC programming wunderkind Ben Silverman is losing his shit over Rosie O'Donnell. In a word, it's love … at first Nielsen. So says Roger Friedman, who reports Silverman is "telling friends" that he'll do anything to get Rosie on the Peacock's roster. Silverman is said to want Rosie for a primetime game show as well a daytime competitor to The View.
But that's not the real news from Friedman. We hear the Fox gossip is celebrating his birthday this weekend. We're sending over a Pop Burger gift certificate.
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