Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 97

TV Notebook
NBC to Announce New Exec Roles Soon
By James Hibberd Television Week

NBC is expected to make a major announcement today or tomorrow on the fates of at least three top executives, and prolific producer Ben Silverman is set to take a major new role at the company.

Entertainment President Kevin Reilly, who re-signed with the network only three months ago, will step down, sources familiar with the matter said. NBC Universal Television Studio President Angela Bromstad, whose future has been in limbo in recent months while the company contemplated merging the studio and network, will likely remain on board, possibly overseeing international efforts in London. Executive VP Katherine Pope, a 34-year-old rising star who helped develop NBC's breakout hit "Heroes," also is likely to stay with the company.

Rumors of the spectacular NBC shakeup have roiled the industry, with insiders expressing surprise over several aspects of the story: That NBC would give a 36-year-old network outsider, Mr. Silverman, such a powerful position; that Mr. Silverman would give up his producing perch to run a challenged network; that Ms. Pope might leave the company.

But the biggest surprise has centered around NBC's handling of Mr. Reilly, who reportedly only learned of his fate after receiving an anonymous e-mail Friday claiming that Mr. Silverman was replacing him. After Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood blog first reported the pending shakeup, all parties went into overdrive through the holiday weekend to lock down the new agreements.

As of Tuesday morning, the major movements of the story were essentially unchanged: Mr. Silverman, producer of hits such as NBC's "The Office" and ABC's "Ugly Betty," will step into a newly created position above Mr. Reilly's former slot, possibly overseeing both the network and NBC Universal Television Studio. The agreement may call for NBC to purchase Mr. Silverman's production company, Reveille, as well.

Ms. Bromstad's position has been in limbo in recent months. Mr. Reilly and Ms. Bromstad reportedly have clashed on creative projects and Ms. Bromstad was noticeably absent from this month's network upfront presentation to advertisers in New York.

Sources said NBC Universal President-CEO Jeff Zucker is a supporter of Ms. Bromstad and was trying to find a way to keep her on board.

According to published reports, Ms. Pope, having planned to move to the studio side, was upset by Mr. Zucker's move to place the network and studio under Mr. Silverman and asked to be let out of her contract last week. Ms. Pope is credited with developing the season's lone breakout for NBC, "Heroes," and one insider described her attempt to quit as "a bluff that Zucker called."

When NBC renewed Mr. Reilly's contract earlier this year, the network had cause for tentative optimism. Coming off the fall, NBC was again in fourth place in the ratings, but it showed some year-to-year audience growth. The network also garnered buzz for new shows like "Heroes" and "Friday Night Lights."

But the recent broadcast ratings slump hit NBC especially hard, with the network suffering some of its lowest ratings in Nielsen's history. The May sweeps period concluded last week with NBC down a steep 22 percent compared to the same period last year in the key 18- to 49-year-old demographic.

The network's upfront presentation was considered lackluster by some industry insiders, with only four new shows added for fall and no new comedies.

Mr. Reilly also attracted some recent criticism by renewing low-rated series "Lights" and "30 Rock." But people familiar with the matter said NBC's record-low ratings are the key reason Mr. Zucker sought out Mr. Silverman for the new position.

Media reports have speculated Mr. Reilly might move to HBO, which has a top executive vacancy due to the departure of CEO Chris Albrecht earlier this month. Mr. Reilly often has been accused of having more of a premium-cable sensibility, due to developing shows like "Lights," "30 Rock" and "The Office" that score highly with critics and sophisticated viewers but lack broad-based appeal. But HBO considers Mr. Reilly more of a programmer than a CEO, and sources said the company likely is looking elsewhere to fill Mr. Albrecht's post.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=12111

I finally got around to watching the finale of "CSI:NY" and it was marvelous.

The show is, obviously "just" a procedural, but it was a nerve-wracking season-ender with almost all the regulars in danger --= but it ended up with everyone safe, smiling and looking forward to the future.

What a relief from the forced, staged, cliff-hanger crap we usually are saddled with for the summer months.

For me, "Grey's Anatomy" played its way out of my top three with its final 10 epidoes or so this season and the finale was especially, and painfully, poorly done.

Yesterday, the NY Times and zap2it finally go to the NBC story. Today, at long last, TV Guide mentions the Reilly firing for the very first time.)

TV Notebook
The NBC Shuffle
By Matt Roush TV Guide senior critic May 29, 2007

No such thing as a lull in the TV business, both on and off screen, not even in the once-sleepy period between the end of the traditional season and the start of June. Forget about all the off-season shows premiering this week (you probably will eventually, anyway), a rather staggering glut, but fans won't want to forget that House and Boston Legal have their season finales tonight (delayed a week to make room for reality TV). Beyond what's on TV, it's been a crazy couple of days for the business itself.

On Friday, it was made official that Rosie O'Donnell was off The View for good, a few weeks ahead of schedule. Not such a big surprise after her confrontational meltdown with Elisabeth Hasselbeck a few days earlier, the latest chapter in The Boor vs. The Blonde. Looks to me like Rosie was just looking for any excuse to make an early exit. The fact that she did not bow out with grace is hardly a shock. But what will it take to get her nitwit nemesis off the show? Right now, Joy Behar is the only conceivable reason to watch this train wreck.

Then over the holiday weekend, news surfaced that NBC's long-beleaguered entertainment president Kevin Reilly was on the way out, just two weeks after he made his upfront presentation of the new fall schedule and three months after signing a multiyear deal. The timing is bizarre, but that's often the case with those who hold these precarious, high-pressure jobs. I can't count the number of entertainment presidents who've fronted either an upfront or a TCA press-tour session mere days or weeks into the job, having inherited someone else's development slate.

Reilly has lived with rumors of his demise almost since he took on the job and the challenge of turning around NBC's fortunes (which under Jeff Zucker went from Friends to friendless). Reilly's tenure has been rocky, but also distinguished by some critical success (Friday Night Lights most recently, as well as the Thursday comedy lineup) and, this season, the popular breakthrough of Heroes, which clearly had a big impact on next season's development, with high-concept hours like Bionic Woman, Journeyman and Chuck. Reilly also nurtured The Office into one of prime time's most distinguished comedies, winning the Emmy and many other prizes.

Ironically, the man who brought The Office to NBC Ben Silverman of the on-the-rise Reveille production company (Ugly Betty, The Tudors, The Biggest Loser and many other reality series) is now the new it guy at NBC, while Reilly is out, in an executive shuffle that's in the process of being made official and which is sure to have deeper ripples through the NBC Universal corporate world. (There are rumors as well that Reilly may be looking at HBO as a new home, the pay-TV giant itself in corporate disarray after the messy departure of top exec Chris Albrecht.)

Reveille already has a first-look deal at NBC Universal, and now it looks like the entire company may be brought into the fold, as a new executive position is created for Silverman. (They apparently still need a replacement for Reilly, and who wouldn't love that job security?)

Silverman is young (36) and a hot commodity, obviously skilled at finding, developing and selling projects. He's a master packager, but how will he fare as a programmer? Too soon to know.

Just as it's too soon to know what this latest game of musical chairs means for NBC's new lineup in general, and specifically, for fragile properties like Friday Night Lights (of which Reilly was famously a champion). Ben Silverman certainly has his work cut out for him. And the peacock? It's not like we haven't seen its feathers ruffled before.

http://community.tvguide.com/blog/TV...atch/700000048

TV Notebook
Jeff Zucker Wields The Knife At NBC
From thewgawker.com May 29, 2007

Three months after signing a three-year extension with the network, NBC's entertainment chief Kevin Reilly is out of a job, being replaced by Ben Silverman, producer of "The Office."
The news was first reported by Hollywood blabbermouth Nikki Finke (please save the e-mails, Nikki, we mean it in a good way) on Friday, and then regurgitated without credit by the New York Times and the LAT yesterday. (Classy!)

The Wall Street Journal notes that Reilly, responsible the for "Heroes," last season's only hit, got like a totally raw deal.

The network was No. 1 in the spring of 2005, when Mr. Reilly took over, with its performance diving the following fall. But in many ways, Mr. Reilly inherited a sinking ship.

Programs such as "Law & Order" were fading, and the network had failed to come up with a new comedy engine to replace "Friends." Mr. Reilly, well-respected in Hollywood's creative community, was charged with finding a new wave of hits.

So essentially, the guy did the best he could to clean up the s**tpile bequeathed to him by Jeff Zucker and ended up getting canned after finding more successful new programs than Zucker ever did. Explain to us again why Jeff keeps falling upward?

And what of Reilly's successor? Finke:

Certainly, Silverman has great taste. But as one source tells me, 36-year-old Ben "can barely manage his way out of a paper bag" because of his extreme lifestyle, relentless ass kissing, and constant jetting around in his private plane.

Hmm, seems familiar. Watch your ass, Zucker:

Dude sounds like a young version of you, but with hair.

http://www.gawker.com/news/falling-u...nbc-264034.php

TV Notebook
The Official NBC Announcement
BEN SILVERMAN AND MARC GRABOFF NAMED CO-CHAIRMEN OF NBC ENTERTAINMENT AND NBC UNIVERSAL TELEVISION STUDIO

NBC News Release May 29, 2007

Silverman Brings Award-Winning Track Record to NBC

BURBANK, Calif. -- May 29, 2007 -- Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Ben Silverman, the prolific producer and program executive behind such television hits as The Office, Ugly Betty, and The Biggest Loser, as well as the man who brought Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Big Brother to the United States, is becoming a senior executive at NBC Universal. Silverman and veteran NBCU executive Marc Graboffa> have been appointed Co-Chairmen of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio.

The announcement was made today by Jeff Zucker, President and CEO, NBC Universal, to whom both Silverman and Graboff will report.

We are extremely thrilled to have Ben on board. After years of working with him as an agent, a supplier to both our broadcast and cable networks, and as a producer, we've come to know him as one of the most savvy and successful executives in the industry, said Zucker. I always thought this was the right job for Ben. This new role will give him the opportunity to redefine our programming, our relationship with advertisers, and our ongoing commitment to the new digital frontier.

Continued Zucker: Marc is a proven and respected executive whose wealth of expertise in so many divisions will continue to be a huge plus in this realignment. He has superb business acumen and an instinctive grasp of our expanding company and its multiple platforms, and is positioning NBC for the future. Marc and Ben have a long and successful history of working together that gives us tremendous confidence in the strength of this new partnership.

Kevin Reilly, who has served as President of NBC Entertainment for the past three years, and NBCU have mutually agreed to end their relationship. Kevin has given us some incredibly important, high-quality new series in recent years, and his legacy will be evident for many years to come in NBC's primetime schedule, said Zucker. I want to thank him for all of his efforts on behalf of the company.

In their new roles, Silverman and Graboff will have responsibility for all aspects of the network's primetime, late-night and daytime programming, and will also oversee the entertainment division's digital efforts, including NBC.com, and all of the network and television studio's creative, marketing, business, and financial components.

Said Graboff: I am very excited about the opportunity to partner with someone like Ben. He's a brilliant producer and a true out-of-the-box thinker who wants to change the business model of this industry. We complement each other very well and together will be a strong team to guide NBC through a period of enormous change and opportunity.

Added Silverman: I grew up watching NBC and have always loved this network. So this is a dream job for me. And what a thrill it is to be partnering with Marc. We have had great success across the table from each other and I can't wait to be working side-by-side with him to help shape NBC's future during this time of incredible excitement and unprecedented change.

Graboff, who was named President, NBC Universal Television, West Coast, in February 2007, will also continue his leadership role in Domestic TV Distribution. Barry Wallach, President, Domestic TV Distribution, will continue to report to Graboff.

Silverman is the founder and CEO of Reveille, a leading independent production and distribution company. Earlier this year, Reveille entered into an expanded and creative arrangement with NBC Universal that gave both the broadcast network and the company's cable properties a first look at all scripted and unscripted projects. With today's announcement, that deal has been extended for two more years.

Gawker is generally too inside for me to post here (although I have on rare occasions), but it is a prime source of good media rumors/reporting based in NYC.

It is generally a fun, if very acerbic, read.

Sorry it took so long, Michael, but now there is word.

TV Notebook
ABC to give another run to "Kyle XY"
By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic in his TV Guy blog May 29, 2007

"Kyle XY," the saga of a mysterious guy without a belly button, will receive another run on ABC this summer.

The series begins its second season at 8 p.m. June 11 on ABC Family. If you miss the episodes there, you can look to ABC, which will air them starting at 8 p.m. June 15.

Matt Dallas plays the title character.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/ent..._give_ano.html

ABC hasn't posted its Kyle XY release yet, Rocky -- when it does, I'll try to figure out how they are going to handle all those episodes.

I assume, however, it is just using the show as summer fill, so when the fall begins so will the regular ABC prime time Friday schedule.

TV Notebook
Silverman In, Reilly Out At NBC U
ABC's Steve McPherson: The treatment (Reilly) has gotten has been disgusting. He brought back quality, class and success over there and put his balls on the line better than anyone in the business, myself included.

Ben Grossman & Jim Benson Broadcasting & Cable 5/29/2007

After a wild weekend of rumors, NBC Universal has confirmed that producer Ben Silverman will move into the co-chairman role with Marc Graboff and that Kevin Reilly will be exiting as NBC Entertainment president.

The network had to rush the announcement after word of the talks first surfaced on Friday.

Advertisers are reluctant to begin upfront negotiations, and spend tens of millions of dollars with the network, until NBC resolves its management issues and advertisers are confident they are buying into a schedule that the network buys into itself.

NBCU extended by two years a deal it made earlier this year with Silverman, founder and CEO of Reveille, that gave both the broadcast network and the company's cable properties a first look at all scripted and unscripted projects. The announcement did not address whether NBCU will buy the company, as had been speculated.

In their new roles, NBCU said that Silverman and Graboff will have responsibility for all aspects of the network's prime time, late-night and daytime programming, and will also oversee the entertainment division's digital efforts, including NBC.com. They will also oversee the network and television studio's creative, marketing, business, and financial components, though it is widely believed that Silverman will primarily handle creative and Graboff the other functions.

The announcement makes no mention of what will happen to No.2 entertainment executive Katherine Pope or any formal plans to fold NBC Universal Television Studios (NUTS) into the entertainment division, leading to speculation that there could be more announcements to come.

Also, there is no word about who Silverman will choose as an entertainment president, or if that role will be filled at all.

We are extremely thrilled to have Ben on board, NBCU President-CEO Jeff Zucker said in a statement. After years of working with him as an agent, a supplier to both our broadcast and cable networks, and as a producer, we've come to know him as one of the most savvy and successful executives in the industry I always thought this was the right job for Ben. This new role will give him the opportunity to redefine our programming, our relationship with advertisers, and our ongoing commitment to the new digital frontier.

Zucker also addressed Graboff's continued but diminished role. Marc is a proven and respected executive whose wealth of expertise in so many divisions will continue to be a huge plus in this realignment, Zucker said. He has superb business acumen and an instinctive grasp of our expanding company and its multiple platforms, and is positioning NBC for the future. Marc and Ben have a long and successful history of working together that gives us tremendous confidence in the strength of this new partnership.

NBC and Reilly, who has served as president of NBC Entertainment for the past three years, and recently signed a three-year renewal, have mutually agreed to end their relationship, the announcement said.

Kevin has given us some incredibly important, high-quality new series in recent years and his legacy will be evident for many years to come in NBC's prime time schedule, said Zucker. I want to thank him for all of his efforts on behalf of the company.

NBC credits Silverman, a former agent who now produces NBC's The Office, ABC's Ugly Betty and reality series such as NBC's The Biggest Loser, for bringing Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Big Brother to the U.S.

Said Graboff, who many industry insiders say instigated the moves to get rid of Reilly and bring in Silverman: I am very excited about the opportunity to partner with someone like Ben. He's a brilliant producer and a true out-of-the-box thinker who wants to change the business model of this industry. We complement each other very well and together will be a strong team to guide NBC through a period of enormous change and opportunity.

Added Silverman: I grew up watching NBC and have always loved this network. So this is a dream job for me. And what a thrill it is to be partnering with Marc. We have had great success across the table from each other and I can't wait to be working side-by-side with him to help shape NBC's future during this time of incredible excitement and unprecedented change.

Graboff, who was named president, NBC Universal Television, West Coast, in Februarytaking on oversight of creative then--will also continue to run NBCU Domestic TV Distribution. Barry Wallach, President, Domestic TV Distribution, will continue to report to Graboff.

Studio chief Angela Bromstad, who has basically been out of her job all year, is still expected to remain with the organization in some way, most likely focusing on the international production side of the business should she accept a role in London.

Pope, meanwhile, had become frustrated and basically resigned last week after learning NBC U was not going to merge its network and studio, a strategy toward which it had been leaning. Pope was in line to assume a larger role on the heels of that shift.

Now it remains to be seen whether the highly-regarded executive will remain in the fold, and if so what role she would assume. With Silverman in a position higher up the food chain than that formerly held by Reilly, there would seem to be room for an executive both at the network or studio oversight position, or perhaps one overseeing both.

Given the moving pieces, other names that have popped up as possible candidates to move to the network and/or studio were former Fox entertainment chief and current producer Gail Berman and USA/Sci Fi head Bonnie Hammer, though now it seems both will remain in their current roles.

While Silverman turned down NBC's initial overture, the two sides continued discussions over the weekend regarding both NBC hiring Silverman and acquiring his Reveille production outfit.

There were initial doubts about whether Silverman, who is behind shows such as NBC's The Office and The Biggest Loser and ABC's Ugly Betty, would step away from his lucrative production shingle to take the job.

His company, though, is said to have been in play for some time now.

Silverman's discussions with NBC U are involving both his potential role as well as some degree of ownership of Reveille, which he has been shopping.

As for Reilly, he recently signed a new three-year deal with the network, which will buy out the highly-regarded programmer once terms are finalized.

While Reilly and the network came under fire after the upfronts, his supporters note he has been forced to operate amidst drastic budget cuts under the NBC 2.0 umbrella.

For instance, NBC only ordered comedy pilots from its own studio.

Despite that environment and ongoing questions about his job security before and after his recent deal, Reilly developed the lone game-changing ratings hit of last season, Heroes, and has championed critically-acclaimed fare including The Office, 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights.

With that, he had plenty of backers singing his praises over the weekend, including friend and rival Steve McPherson, head of ABC Entertainment.

The treatment he has gotten has been disgusting, McPherson says of Reilly's time at NBC U.He brought back quality, class and success over there and put his balls on the line better than anyone in the business, myself included. I don't know what more you can ask for.

McPherson says that Reilly is taking the blame for problems that went beyond his control.

How many scapegoats do you get, is there a limit on scapegoats? he says.To do these jobs effectively, you have to be given the support and control for good or bad. It certainly never appeared he got that.

Should Reilly decide to go back to work anytime soon, industry chatter is already pointing to HBO as a good fit in the wake of the departure of Chris Albrecht.

Reilly's tastes are considered a good match for the cable outfit, as many speculated prior to his recent re-upping with NBC that HBO would be a better place for him anyway, as it desperately needs to replace hits such as The Sopranos.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ind...leID=CA6446798

TV Notebook
MyNetworkTV to bank on reality for fall
By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic in his TV Guy blog May 29, 2007

After flopping with English-language telenovelas in its first year, MyNetworkTV has decided to go with reality in a big way. Get ready for prison inmates, bickering couples and prying parents.

The reality titles are "The Academy," "Jail," "Divorce Wars" and "Meet My Folks."

Here's the schedule for the lineup, all times are Eastern and Pacific:

Monday: "IFL Battleground," 8 to 10 p.m.

Tuesday: "The Academy" at 8; "Jail" at 9.

Wednesday: "Divorce Wars" at 8; "Meet My Folks" at 9.

Thursday: movie at 8.

Friday: movie at 8.

Saturday: repeat of "IFL Battleground" at 8.

Here's more about the series:

"The Academy" comes from Fox Reality and explores an 18-week training course at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

"Jail" looks at inmates across the country. The series comes from John Langley, creator of "Cops."

"Divorce Wars" is the working title for a look at real-life couples. These unhappily married folks enter the show's house for five days, where they are followed round the clock.

"Meet My Folks" lets the parents decide on the people who will date their children. (Oh, fun.) The dating candidates face revealing interviews and even a lie detector.

MyNetworkTV also will offer 10 specials from "Access Hollywood" that promise exposes on breaking celebrity news.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/ent...orktv_to_.html

TV Notebook
NBC Brings In Programming Help
By Bill Carter The New York Times

NBC Universal shook up its entertainment operations today by hiring one of the hottest young production talents in television, Ben Silverman, as a chairman of both its entertainment division and its television studio.

Mr. Silverman will share the title with Marc Graboff, giving them joint control over NBC's entertainment business in California. Mr. Graboff has been president of NBC Universal Television since February.

At the same time, NBC announced the departure of Kevin Reilly, the president of entertainment, who had been the chief programmer for the NBC broadcast network. Only three month ago, Mr. Reilly had signed a new three-year contract to remain as the head of the network's entertainment division.

Today's announcements, which had been expected, culminated a frenzied weekend of negotiations as Jeff Zucker, the president and chief executive of NBC Universal, put together an offer to secure Mr. Silverman, who has been among the most successful suppliers of programs to NBC Universal over the last three years through his company, Reveille.

NBC has held an interest in the company and it announced that it extended its deal with Reveille for another two years. But NBC did not acquire the company outright, which had been expected.

Mr. Zucker said in a statement that he had been convinced for some time that Mr. Silverman was right for this job, which he described as a move to redefine our programming, our relationship with advertisers, and our ongoing commitment to the new digital frontier.

Mr. Silverman has been prominent in pushing deals to reshape the content of television programming. As an agent for the William Morris Agency, he was in the middle of many of the early deals that brought reality programs to American networks, including hits like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Survivor.

As an independent producer he was active in buying format rights to foreign shows and turning them into successful American series, with The Office on NBC and Ugly Betty on ABC. He also developed several reality series for both network and cable channels including The Biggest Loser for NBC and Nashville Star for the USA cable network.

Mr. Silverman has also aggressively sought to bring advertisers into program development and has deals in place with the MSN site of Microsoft to offer sponsored short video series on the Internet.

NBC said that Mr. Silverman and Mr. Graboff would share responsibility for the network's prime-time, late-night and daytime programming, and would supervise the entertainment division's digital programming. They are also charged with managing both the network and the studio's marketing and financial strategies.

But Mr. Silverman's first assignment may be to shore up NBC's prime-time programming, because the network continues to languish, with the least successful lineup among the broadcast networks. Mr. Zucker has emphasized that owning the most popular content is the chief goal of the company.

Mr. Reilly brought several successes to NBC, including this year's drama Heroes, and was highly regarded for his taste in programs. But the network, which has been compelled by revenue shortfalls to install cost-cutting measures in recent years, continues to suffer from a shortage of the kind of hits it needs to turn around what has been four years of negative momentum.

Though Mr. Silverman is getting a different job and title, Mr. Reilly actively sought to step away from NBC after it became clear that Mr. Zucker was wooing Mr. Silverman. NBC is expected to announce other changes in its entertainment division, with another executive assuming many of Mr. Reilly's direct duties in the next few days.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/bu...gewanted=print

You and apparently well over 100,00,000 million other TV households!

TV Notebook
Reilly Leaves NBC:
It's GE Working Hard At The Office
By Wayne Friedman MediaPost.com May 29th, 2007

Now we know why NBC didn't make many changes this upfront season: because the fourth-place network will have a new head of entertainment soon to put his imprint on things.

Kevin Reilly is leaving as president of NBC Entertainment after only a three-year stint. He has had some successes under his reign: Heroes was a major one, and, to a lesser extent, The Office and My Name is Earl.

After three seasons, the network is still mired in fourth place and everyone knows what that means in the land of General Electric. GE takes pride in the fact that all its businesses are either first or second in their respective categories.

The telltale signs were there as recently as two weeks ago, right after NBC made its upfront presentation for its fall schedule. Glaringly obvious was that NBC made not one change in its Thursday night lineup. Through the '90s, the Thursday night comedy lineup had been the pride of the company.

TV analysts were scratching their heads. Shouldn't NBC make Heroes take a shot at perhaps the 10 p.m. time slot -away from Grey's Anatomy and CSI.?

Nope. Instead NBC offered up a modest five new shows, while ABC announced an eye-opening 12 new series. One would have thought it was ABC in last place all these years.

Now the kid with the magic touch may be coming to save the day: Ben Silverman, the producer who gave us two mainstay NBC shows, The Office and The Biggest Loser as well as this past season's modest rookie ABC performer, Ugly Betty.

For a while this past season, it looked like Reilly might make it. For example, Sunday Night Football took the strain off programming that tough night, especially competing with ABC.

Then Heroes hit pay dirt in the fall and continued to brush aside heavy hitters like 24′ when January rolled around. Even ER was suddenly revived albeit CBS' Without a Trace was no longer competing with it at 10 p.m.

But after football season ended, things began to turn. Reality shows on Sunday, including The Apprentice, sank NBC back to its poor ratings levels. And then mysteriously, ER took a nosedive after mid-season.

Yet in February, Reilly was given a three-year extension. Now, three months after that move, it's over. It seemed NBC Universal under the new leadership of Jeff Zucker, who brought in Reilly three years ago, was already thinking about a successor. That got Reilly wanting to clarify his position.

And you know how those things go.

Once your boss starts thinking about future replacement executives who might have superhuman powers to leap competitive network schedules in a single bound, anything less is only a skip around the office at 30 Rock.

http://blogs.mediapost.com/tv_watch/?p=702

TV Notebook
MyNetwork's Stark Reality
By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant TV Critic in his TV Eye blog May 29, 2007

The telenovelas didn't work, so MyNetworkTV is facing reality.

Five reality titles were announced for MyNetwork TV Tuesday, weeks after the other broadcast networks announced their fall plans.

Along with such titles as Divorce Wars, Jail, the broadcast debut of The Academy, and revivals of Meet My Folks and Paradise Hotel, the network will offer 10 celebrity specials from Access Hollywood and occasional pro volleyball events.

The constants from the current season will be the network's biggest hit, "IFL Battleground" on Mondays, repeated on Saturdays, and theatrical movies Thursdays and Fridays.

MyNetworkTV just finished its first year replacing UPN in most markets (including this one) when UPN combined with the WB to form The CW.

Its initial year fared especially poor with its offering of nightly soaps with fixed runs that are popular elsewhere in the world under the name telenovelas.

The first attempts, Desire and Fashion House with stars like Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild, showed five new hours each every week for 13 weeks. They failed to gain traction, so that the second set of stories, American Heiress and Saints & Sinners were broken up into single episode showings Wednesdays only.

Of the new shows, The Academy, which started recently on Fox Reality cable channel, follows a group of recruits hoping to join the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department.

Jail will be a variation on the Fox network's long-running Cops about offenders on the inside.

Divorce Wars will follow couples trying to hang onto their marriage. Meet My Folks is a revival of the dating show that popularized the rise of polygraph tests on reality shows. Likewise, the revived Paradise Hotel, following singles trying to stay the longest in a resort in Mexico, won't be on until March 2008.

Movies will continue to be run on Thursdays and Fridays as they have been this spring.

http://blogs.courant.com/roger_catlin_tv_eye/

I agree completely, Jim.

In the old days, under Jack Welch, the basic rule was GE only kept divisions that ranked #one or #two in their core businesses. It would seem to be quite a while before NBC will climb that high again.

TV Notebook
NBC taps 'Office' producer to head programming
Ben Silverman is named co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio
By Meg James Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 29, 2007

Frustrated after being stuck in the ratings cellar for three brutal TV seasons, NBC Universal today hired up-and-coming producer Ben Silverman in hopes of restoring the network to its former glory.

The onetime William Morris talent agent was named co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio. Silverman will share the job with Marc Graboff, who is currently the highest-ranking NBC executive on the West Coast.

NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker flew to Los Angeles on Monday to wrap up a frenetic weekend of negotiations.

"I always thought this was the right job for Ben," Zucker said in a statement. "This new role will give him the opportunity to redefine our programming, our relationship with advertisers and our ongoing commitment to the new digital frontier."

NBC had not been planning to make such a move so soon. But last week, word leaked that Zucker was planning to replace Kevin Reilly, the NBC Entertainment president who just signed a new three-year contract in March. The company said today that NBC and Reilly had "mutually agreed to end their relationship."

After the network's prime-time ratings withered this spring, executives decided to make a dramatic change. They apparently believed that the new shows Reilly developed to launch this fall -- including a remake of the 1970s hit "Bionic Woman" -- would not be enough to lift the network in the ratings.

It's unclear whether NBC will merge NBC Entertainment with NBC Universal Television Studio, which it acquired three years ago. NBC had been considering the move.

The studio's current president, Angela Bromstad, is expected to take another job in the company.

Also unclear is the fate of Katherine Pope, Reilly's second in command at the network, who nurtured NBC's biggest new hit, "Heroes."

If the company went ahead with the merger, NBC Universal Television Studio would be less inclined to sell shows to other networks, such as Fox Broadcasting or Walt Disney Co.'s ABC. That would be a retrenchment by the General Electric Co.-owned unit, which produces "House," one of Fox's biggest hits.

Silverman is currently chief executive of Reveille, a company he founded. Through Reveille, Silverman is executive producer of NBC's Emmy Award-winning comedy hit "The Office" and of the ABC series "Ugly Betty."

In addition, Silverman is the co-creator and executive producer of the reality show "The Biggest Loser" on NBC, USA Network's "Nashville Star" and "Blow Out" on Bravo. His other projects include "Date My Mom" and "Parental Control" for MTV and the series "30 Days" for the FX cable channel.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...business-enter