A Broadcasting and Cable story has NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker saying Ben Silverman will be staying on. From B & C:
Zucker says NBC Entertainment and studio co-chairman Ben Silverman is going to sign a new deal to stay at the company.
“Ben will continue to be here at NBC, yes,” Zucker told B&C as part of a candid Q&A that runs in its entirety in the December 15 issue.
Zucker’s decision comes despite the network’s continuing primetime struggles after a fall in which none of its high profile launches, from Knight Rider to My Own Worst Enemy,caught on despite the strong promotional launch pad of a wildly-successful, record-setting Olympics from Beijing.
“Obviously it’s been a disappointing fall for NBC, and we need to do better,” Zucker says. “I take some pride in the fact that of the 10 TV shows that were nominated for Golden Globes, only three air on broadcast TV and we produce all of them [The Office and 30 Rock on NBC, as well as the Universal Media Studios-produced House for Fox]. So we obviously have some ability to produce good programs; we just need to do more.”
Color me skeptical, but I won’t believe in the “new deal” until the ink is dry. It would be a pretty big shocker to me if there’s a new deal for Ben prior to the end of the current season.
Yes, because Golden Globes will pay bills.. lame excuse.
Interesting… Veeeery interesting.
STRANGE, ISN’T IT?
Very.
this is a good reading about the Leno thing on NBC
“The 10 Good, Bad and the Truly Dumb Points of NBC Putting Leno on at 10:00″
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=24&entry_id=33408
Hmmm, curious indeed. I think Zucker is enamored with the critical acclaim (awards etc) as much as he’s enamored with big dollars and big ratings. Or more.
Saw that. NBC is one screaming announcer shy of the Hindenburg was one our favorite lines!
Clutz, it seems Ben still has some halo around the work he did before he had his current job. Notably, he was part of the team that brought The Office to NBC, and in a previous life, I believe (might be having a senile moment though) he executive produced The Biggest Loser. If only the halo of the Olympics had lasted as long as Ben’s halo…
I see you took my advice and posted some non-Dawn stuff :p
Anyway, I don’t know if you guys read Nikki Finki’s blog, but she always goes after him.
Andrea, c’mon! I have Dawn outlasting Ben in my “Network Executive” fantasy league. I do read DHD, but she’s had him gone since last May though, so I read it more for entertainment than maneuvering the fantasy league…
^Lol.
I think NBC should keep him there just long enough for me to get a job there and work my way up the ranks and then totally steal his job from him. And at that point, NBC will be in so much trouble that anything I do will look brilliant in comparison.
It’s the beginning of the end for the peacock. What a stupid idea if I ever heard one. Pushing Leno into primetime is a disaster in the making. Zucker has kept his job by maintaining the margins at NBC despite the fact that their ratings are pitiful. They are all about recuding costs at NBC, but the problem with that is if you cut your costs too severely (as NBC is doing), you end up lacking innovation which will kill you in the long term.
Even in this industry with with severely declining numbers, the next smash hit will arrive eventually. With what NBC is doing, I guarantee that the new Top 10 shows of the future will not be on that network. I can’t even beleive I’m saying this when just two or three days ago, before hearing about NBC’s apocalyptic decision, I warned the NBC bashers that the last place networks are usually the ones to pop out the next innovative smash. That isn’t going to happen with Leno on 5 days at 10pm.
NBC does not throw the baby out with the bathwater. If they are happy, I suppose all viewers of the network should also be happy. They sure have a short menu of watchable programs in my opinion.
This seems like the classic case of “He’s our man” until very suddenly “He’s not our man”. If the Over/Under for Silverman in his current job was 1 Year, I’d take the under.
When Leno goes on 5 times a week in primetime—then NBC will be the new CW…
I don’t watch that network at all – okay The Olympics & the upcoming Superbowl…
That’s all folks
They must be drinking the kool-aid. Or maybe in honor of Silverman…smoking the weed.
If I didnt perform at work, I would be fired. The person programming NBC is obviously not doing his job. They got rid of Journeyman last year, not to mention Scrubs. They back shows like Deal or No Deal which are crap shows.
Mikey, you start out sounding like you’re talking sense, but then you mention canceling Journeyman as if it’s a bad thing.
I like Journeyman as well (towards the end of the series anyway), but the numbers were appalling. I understand completely why they axed it. Not to mention the strike at the time.
Okay, I have a general question just to throw out there–
What’s the point of airing scripted shows if reality shows are cheaper and bring in the same or better numbers?
What’s NBC’s incentive to try any more scripted programming?
(I’m not saying this shouldn’t but, for arguments sake, why should they?)
Andrea that unscripted shows “bring in the same or better numbers” isn’t universally true.
You can compare the 18-49 averages here:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/12/09/what-do-nbc-programmers-cancel-life-knight-rider-law-order-kath-kim-chuck/9340
Top list are scripted shows, the bottom are unscripted.
While we are unaware of the actual costs or revenue for any particular shows, it’s a reasonable approximation that their advertising revenue is tied to their 18-49 viewership. Also remember that while 2 of the top unscripted shows are NFL football, they are most definitely *not* cheap.
As to why try scripted shows vs. just doing all unscripted, I have 2 guesses that I cannot put numbers behind. (1) A hit scripted show brings in far more profit than pretty much everything short of American Idol, of course development takes time, money and risk. (2) Inertia – It’s been done this way for a really long time, so like everything else, the impetus is just to continue doing it.
Unscripted shows don’t get DVD sales while scripted shows, especially serialised shows, bring in sometimes lucrative DVD sales. Scripted shows can also be sold more easily to other countries than unscripted shows.
Andrea, syndication is the “gravy train” for the networks — at least for stuff produced by the networks’ own studios. There’s not much of a syndication market for unscripted content.
Technically, there is a syndication market for game shows but whether it’s syndicated Wheel of Fortune, syndicated Jeopardy or now, Deal or No Deal — that’s all “new” content for syndication. Meanwhile over 10.5 years since the last Seinfeld was produced, it’s still raking in the syndication dollars.
Also there’s DVD revenue to consider — right now it’s all pretty much gravy that goes straight to the bottom line for hit scripted shows. There’s not really a DVD market for reality shows. The NBC move makes a lot of sense from a short-term bottom line perspective, but by cutting a significant portion of its primetime programming, it may come at the expense of lagging long-term revenue streams.
“… we obviously have some ability to produce good programs; we just need to do more.”
What?!? Does he seriously think he’s going to get “good programming” from Hilary Duff? Very funny.
“Yes, because Golden Globes will pay bills.. lame excuse.”
Yep, look how much good it did for Boston Legal? Won countless things and still got treated like dirt.
“We make shows that no one watches, so we pay the awards people off”.
Everyone at NBC should be fired.
In all fairness to NBC, there’s no choice but to focus on short-term profitability, since the current economic environment simply isn’t conducive to long-term investment; there’s no guarantee there will be a long-term for the network. That being said, Silverman needs to go for his ineptness in programming; that, and being an embarassment virtually every time he opens his mouth.
Being nominated for and winning a Golden Globe award doesn’t impress the average American tv viewer and from recent history hasn’t lead to a huge ratings increase for a show. If I don’t find a show to be interesting or entertaining I don’t bother to continue to watch it and I find many of the critically acclaimed shows on the Golden Globe list to be boring and/or too disgusting to have playing in the house. Besides, I willing to wage that CBS could care less about a Golden Globe nomination when it pulls in weekly ratings that suggests it has the quality of programming that America respects and adores. It really speaks volumnes that most of the Golden Globe nominated shows pull in viewerships below the CBS cancelation standard of 10 million viewers. Regardless of whether an NBC show wins an award, I, like millions of Americans, won’t be inclined to sample that show because I simply don’t trust the judgment of any of these award programs to actually nominate and reward deserving programs.
I think Ben is trying, but he needs to try harder to get NBC where it needs to be. The one thing I disagree with is Leno taking over the 10pm timeslot every weeknight. That’s a valuable timeslot for dramas and NBC could’ve had SVU and LAPD lead the charge. Now they’ve made ABC and CBS stronger in that slot. Leno should’ve only aired once or twice a week at 10pm.
I have a theory on why Silverman is still going to be with the network. No one wants to work for the 4th rated network. They probably, at this point, couldn’t find someone to touch Silverman’s job.
Argh. I can usually speak somewhat rationally and intelligently on the topic of TV, but this whole Silverman thing has me beside myself in anger and disappointment at NBC. What the %^*&%(**&^#% are they thinking? He makes more and more stupid moves practically by the day, but they are falling at his freakin’ feet. I used to work for them. Thank God I don’t now! NBC used to be so great, oh how the mightly have fallen – on to their own sword! The network will get no where until they lose Silverman.