I just read through the Fortune profile on Ben Silverman and I have a lot of mixed emotions. Some of it’s because things like this snippet truly are a mixed bag:
Nearly every new show he is putting on the air this fall owes as much to its ability to attract underwriting as it does to entertainment value. Two of NBC’s big new fall dramas – Knight Rider and My Own Worst Enemy – feature Ford and General Motors products as de facto characters in the shows.
The method has not, so far, produced hits. For the first few weeks of the new TV season, NBC was stuck in third place and had no entertainment programs ranked in the top 20 most-watched shows. In the week ended Oct. 12, though, measured by shows with the most product placements, it had four of the top ten spots.
But some of it is the guy just comes off seeming like a disrespectful pompous ass in some ways (this is highlighted fairly well in the Fortune piece) but on the other hand, I love, love, love that he trash talks his competition so brazenly (at least brazen from the perspective of the fourth place network):
In a similar vein, when I asked him why he didn’t seem concerned that NBC trailed its rivals in viewers, he explained that conventional ratings are obsolete: “The audience that watches my show goes to the theater and goes to dinner and owns DVRs. Their audience watches through an antenna.”
Though he has apparently convinced neither advertisers nor the NBC PR team that conventional ratings are obsolete, the antenna quote was awesome! Although as “Mikey” in the comments notes, Precisely which theater is the Deal Or No Deal audience going to?“
And don’t even get me started on America’s Toughest Jobs...
Head on over and read the whole article.
So, basically, NBC’s audience doesn’t watch TV. Got it. That definitely explains the ratings!
That would be a good line if NBC actually was muddling through with high-quality shows and small but affluent audiences.
Precisely which theater is the Deal Or No Deal audience going to?
Silverman made a brilliant deal on The Office and got rich young. Good for him. That’s more than most of us can say. But let’s face it, he sucks at running a television network. He’s taking one of the great brands in American media and burying it.
It would be like Matt Millen saying “The Patriots don’t know how to draft, or build via free agency.”
I think the reason I find his barbs so amusing is because he’s done so little in his tenure. His biggest success is Chuck! I *love* Chuck, but…Chuck!
The Millen reference alone deserves a gold medal.
Heh, occasionally listening to my dad rant about the Lions pays off!
My favorite story about Silverman was something we featured a few months ago from an industry gathering that had all the network heads.
Silverman: “While they’re [the other network heads] at home eating dinner, I’m out dating their children”
Head of Fox TV (name unimportant): “I have boys”
Edit: Robert’s memory is much better than mine, read below.
Oh no — the name *is* important because the name is Kevin Reilly, who just happens to be the guy who Silverman replaced at NBC. Reilly subsequently landed at Fox, and the Reilly vs. Silverman barbs (I have Reilly ahead on my boxing scorecard 10-8 for every round)are awesome. Here’s the original story from the LA Times blog about the fracas which was only a few *weeks* ago:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2008/10/will-nbcs-silve.html