Thursday, October 30, 2008

Is This The End Of Ben Silverman?

Last week Nielsen told us that only 2 of the Top 20 shows were from NBC -- and one, "Heroes," is widely regarded as being in decline. Even in an age of 1,000 digital channels this is an astonishing feat of spectacular incompetence. Ben Silverman's wet-behind-the-ears arrogance -- and his ingratitude to Kevin Reilly -- only adds to the growing sense of schadenfreude that presently hovers over his supine torso like a growing nimbus of "loser dust." From DeadlinHollyWoodDaily:

"For months now, I've been asking my sources when is NBC going to hire a real programmer since salesman Ben Silverman isn't. So this morning Paul Telegdy suddenly and unexpectedly resigned from BBC Worldwide America. Now I'm told that NBC wants him to become EVP over both unscripted and scripted entertainment. And my sources inform that it would be Telegdy's decision whether to fire or keep NBC's current reality czar Craig Plestis who only has months left on his contract. Now get this: the negotiations call for Telegdy to be given a bigger job like NBC Entertainment President in a year or to get paid off. This could solve NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker's primary problem right now: how not to look like he made a mistake hiring Ben Silverman and still get the programming that the network needs to start succeeding."


In other words, the corporate way: Cover. Your. Ass.

No comments: