Silverman In…Reilly Out at NBC (UPDATE)
May 27, 2007 by Kath Skerry
UPDATE: According to this report, it’s official…Kevin Reilly is out and Ben Silverman is in over at NBCU. Silverman will even have a better title than Reilly as rumors have him coming in as NBC Universal West Coast Chairman. The announcement is expected on Tuesday.
Originally posted on May 25, 2007: The watercoolers over at NBC are boiling today. Rumor has it that NBC Entertainment President, Kevin Reilly might be voted off the island today (oh wait that’s CBS)…let’s try that again. It might be Deal or No Deal for Kevin Reilly (yes!) as the head honcho at NBC TV might just hear his boss Jeff Zucker say “you’re fired” (oh I’m on a roll now) as early as today. With NBC ratings taking a serious hit this year, Reilly is rumored to be out, and the head of Reveille, Ben Silverman – in. Silverman’s Reville is behind the US version of THE OFFICE, THE BIGGEST LOSER and UGLY BETTY.
So who do I root for here? As a fan I’ve been a big supporter of Reilly as he gave his right arm to save THE OFFICE, 30 ROCK and FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. He fought for those shows to stay on the air despite the ratings telling him to dump them. But then again, without Silverman I would never know Jim, Pam, Dwight, Michael and the rest of the Dunder Mifflinites. Nor would we have Betty Suarez and her bad hair and braces. It’s a tough call. And one that I know absolutely nothing about. But I’m going to take a stand and say that I’m proudly TEAM REILLY!! I love what Ben Silverman has done for television (and told him so directly last Tuesday when I got a chance to meet him), but let’s leave Ben to concentrate on bringing us new, great shows, and let’s Kevin Reilly fight the good fight to keep the great shows on the air.
Source: Deadline Hollywood Daily and thanks to our friend over at Seriously?OMG!WTF?! for bringing this to our attention.
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This rumor pops up every few months, but it can’t be true. Didn’t Reilly just sign a new contract a few months ago? Silverman is intriguing, but I can’t remember the last time we had a network exec fight for quality shows the way Reilly has over the past couple of years.
Zucker’s all about the bottom line, which is a real shame. Television isn’t what it was 10 years ago, but some networks are still running it that way. Your Friends and American Idols aren’t the norm – they’re the exception, and you can’t expect a major hit every season. What’s especially sad is that NBC, being at the bottom of the totem pole right now, is in a great position to reinvent itself. Which is where Reilly seemed to be going…what was his phrase? “First be best, then be first?”
Television is a business, for sure, but it’s also cyclical. Sitcoms about pretty twenty-somethings aren’t in right now, so why not take this opportunity to try something different? Instead of recycling ideas that made sense a decade ago, look for the next big hit.
Ugh. Zucker.
*hops off soapbox*
Interesting news, hilarious opening paragraph.
I can count many reasons why Reilly would be fired. His behavior has been COMPLETELY erratic, he disappears for days…even weeks at a time and says he’s “visiting his sister in Scottsdale,” and he is clearly unstable.
*end nod to The Office*
I hope this isn’t true. I know Silverman helped bring The Office to television but I love the way Reilly has stood behind it and made sure it stayed on the air when most networks would have tossed it. He seems less interested in the bottom line and more interested in quality television. I think that’s the way it should be, unfortunately, more often than not, it isn’t.
bah! no! i finally start respecting a TV exec and then they go and try to fire him? I, too, am Team Reilly. Any supporter of Friday Night Lights and The Office is a friend of mine.
it’s nuts. will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Wouldn’t it be great if Jeff Zucker actually took the heat for ruining NBC himself for once? Reilly actually gave this network something they haven’t had for a while: consistency. And if he can build a brand association with quality as more and more were starting to give to the network, it’s only inevitable that the tides would eventually start to turn. Shame they seem about to bail from Reilly’s plan halfway through.
This is really sad news, if true. As many others have pointed out, Reilly stood behind and supported “The Office” when it was struggling in the ratings, and he has supported “Friday Night Lights” too this year. I really can’t imagine any other network that would have shown as much faith in their shows as he did, and the TV landscape is all the more richer with “The Office” and “Friday Night Lights” around. He’s one of the good guys, and it’s a real shame that this has happened.
I will actually be pretty upset and disappointed in Jeff Zucker and the other NBC honchos if they are getting rid of Kevin Reilly. Reilly’s idea of “quality over quantity” made me proud that a network was actually concerned about quality rather than stupid game shows and reality shows or super soap-y dramas.
I say let Silverman continue to do what he does best and develop new hits and let Reilly continue doing the great job he’s been doing.
Damn. And I was Team Reilly the whole way. This blows.