Ben Silverman To Co-Chair NBC Universal's Entertainment Division, Digital Programming

Authored by Jay Baage on May 29, 2007 - 2:46pm.

Burbank, CA - NBC Universal shook up its entertainment operations today when it was announced that mega television producer Ben Silverman has been hired as a co-chairman of both its entertainment division and its television studio, which includes supervising the entertainment division’s digital programming.

NBC at the same time announced the departure of Kevin Reilly, the president of entertainment, who only three month ago signed a new three-year contract to remain as the head of the network’s entertainment division. Silverman will share the title of chairman with Marc Graboff, giving them joint control over NBC’s entertainment business in California. Mr. Graboff has been president of NBC Universal Television since February.

The announcements had been expected, although some reports speculated in that NBC would acquire Silverman's company Reveille outright, which has been among the most successful suppliers of programs to NBC Universal over the last three years.

NBC President and CEO Jeff Zucker said in a statement that he had been convinced for some time that Ben Silverman was “right for this job,” which he described as a move to “redefine our programming, our relationship with advertisers, and our ongoing commitment to the new digital frontier.”

Silverman has been prominent in pushing deals to reshape the content of television programming and is credited for bringing reality programs to American networks, including hits like “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and “Survivor” as well as aggressively sought to bring advertisers into program development and has deals in place with the MSN site of Microsoft to offer sponsored short video series on the Internet.

Joakim Baage

Related Links:
NBC Brings In Programming Help (NYT)
http://www.nbc.com
Press Release