NBC co-chairman Marc Graboff, Zucker, Silverman, and NBC Uni Television president Jeff Gaspin … in happier times

We took an informal poll around the office, and quickly concluded this statement from Jeff Zucker:

From our perspective, there are no questions about Ben Silverman's job security. From our perspective, he's done everything we've asked and more. We are incredibly happy with the job he's done and hope that he'll be with us for a long time to come.

… is wholly lacking in actual confidence in Ben "Paris Hilton" Silverman. "From our perspective"? You "hope" that Silverman will be around "for a long time to come"?

You ain't fooling anybody, Z Man.

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Today show and Race to the White House producer Noah Oppenheim is leaving NBC News to head to Reveille, the production unit started by NBC's co-chair Ben Silverman that's behind Ugly Betty and The Office. [TVN] Bowing to pressure of conflicts of interest, Silverman sold Reveille this year to Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine, which means his new job will put him closer to Bill O'Reilly than it will to Keith Olbermann. No matter, though: Today show exec producer Jim Bell is "happy that he'll still be part of NBCU's extended family."

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.

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]

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.

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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.

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