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ben silverman

television

NBC's Revolving Door

NBC executives hop back and forth from a certain TV production company with the alacrity of former Pentagon officials working their connections for a corrupt defense contractor. The latest? Today Show producer Noah Oppenheim is moving to Reveille, the production unit started by NBC wunderkind co-boss Ben Silverman. Reveille—now owned by mogul-daughter Elisabeth Murdoch—brought shows such as The Office to NBC. So now Oppenheim will be pitching projects to his former boss on behalf of the very company which made Silverman's fortune. How very cosy. (TV Newser)

celebrity-industrial complex

Pimping Tina Fey's Heart Part Of NBC Exec's Awful Vision Of The Future

Ben Silverman is NBC's wunderkind programming chief, close friend to the daughter of News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch and, based on a keynote interview he just gave at an industry event, an even bigger corporate whore than fictional network exec Jack Donaghy on NBC's 30 Rock. Silverman outlined plans to leave viewers of some new shows, including Kath and Kim, hanging at close of the broadcast, forced to log on to NBC's website to see how the program ends. The plan would screw viewers even more severely than the time Silverman scheduled the explicit MILF Island episode of 30 Rock during the heart of his new "family night." But, fine, whatever, as a network executive Silverman is pretty much contractually obligated to come up with awful ideas that will never go anywhere. But why did Silverman have to drag Tina Fey into his keynote disaster, and claim she revels in 30 Rock's marketing deals? More »

evil corporations in action

NBC "Family Hour" Hosted "MILF Island"

That "MILF Island" episode of 30 Rock everyone was talking about Friday? In which 20 hot moms square off in front of 50 eighth-grade boys at "Erection Cove?" It aired during NBC's "Family Hour," in which the whole family is supposed to be able to gather in front of the TV together. NBC executive Ben Silverman re-launched the concept just 10 days ago. Anyone who took the man at his word — and hopefully few people did — either had a very awkward night or has a very interesting family. Now NBC is trying to rewrite what it meant by "family hour." Here's network exec Mitch Metcalf in tomorrow's Times: More »

tv & internet

quarterlife Is a Gigantic Failure

Oops! Remember that show quarterlife about bloggy, navel-gazing twentysomethings that started out on the internet and then moved to television and was supposed to have cracked the code of 'puter to tele conversion? Well, as it turns out no one wants to watch the internet on TV. The NBC show, which was snagged by hip and edgy (and increasingly annoying) young exec Ben Silverman, netted a paltry 3.1 million viewers, making it one of the lowest rated entries for that time slot (Tuesday, 10pm) in the network's past 20 years. It's funny though, because 3.1 million viewers is a lot. On the internet. What's the lesson here? Well mostly that it's going to take a little more elbow grease (and, erm, some better content) to figure out this whole making-internet-stuff-palatable-to-regular-folks thing. Oh, and don't make a show called "quarterlife". [Reuters] After the jump, the first installment that aired online. More »

elisabeth murdoch

NBC's Deepening Ties To The Murdochs

Ben Silverman is the hard-partying, 37-year golden boy of NBC's entertainment division, and until this week had only one real blemish on his record: the conflict of interest in his buying for NBC many shows he himself created, though his production company, Reveille. No worries, though, because his "close friend" Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of Rupert, has taken his production company off his hands and given $125 million in return. The only wrinkle is that Silverman and Murdoch are still considered sufficiently tight that Silverman has to double-check decisions involving the production company the same way he did when he owned the thing. The friends go back 10 years, and Silverman was once Murdoch's agent. Even with the headaches, the deal is still a wise move; Silverman's financial conflict goes away, and he deepens his relationship with a fellow up-and-coming media executive and her dynastic family by becoming one of her major clients. [LA Times via Time]