kevin reilly
Kevin Reilly Will Go To The Ends Of The Westside To Take Your Sitcom Pitch
2:00AM Seth | As we well know, former NBC president Kevin Reilly was thrust aside in a bloody coup in May of 2007, with original programming gangsta Ben Silverman installed in his place, crown cocked B-boy style to one side of his head and tossing Benjamins at assistants’ desks as he strutted towards his corner office to the beat of Notorious B.I.G.’s “Ten Crack Commandments.” Reilly would quickly land back on his feet, however, appointed FOX’s president of entertainment. Buoyed by a little something he likes to call “American Fuck Idol You Money,” he’s been playing around with the dusty concepts of a rigid development season, telling reporters at TCA that the network plans on dividing theirs in two. What’s more, with finding the next hit comedy a top priority, Reilly is throwing all office-bound pitching notions out the window, instead pulling the equivalent of when your 3rd grade teacher used to announce, “It’s such a beautiful day outside, I thought we’d hold class in the park!” THR reports: More »
‘American Idol’ Premiere Ratings Lowest In Four Years, Delivers Slightly Less Brutal Ass-Kicking To Competition
5:08AM Mark | It was just a little over a year ago when then-NBC president Kevin Reilly, obviously depressed by the prospect of helplessly enduring another winter TV season in which all of his network’s midweek offerings would be vaporized by Fox’s Nielsen Death Star (obviously not to be confused with Hollywood’s other destruction-dealing edifice), when he allowed himself this once delusional-seeming ray of hope at the TCAs: “Not to be shitty about it, but maybe they’ll have a bad run. Nothing burns that bright forever. Some day it will be uncool to watch American Idol.” More »
NBC’s Ben Silverman Thinks Network Rivals Reilly And McPherson Are ‘D-Girls,’ But Not Hot And Fun Enough To Party With
6:35AM Defamer Hollywood | In its new issue. Esquire profiles compulsively quotable NBC perfect storm Ben Silverman, who apparently has not been too busy monitoring the foreign airwaves for lowbrow, easily importable reality TV formats he can plug into the holes the writers strike will soon blow in his network’s schedule to publicly invite his favourite rivals over for a good, old-fashioned dick-measuring contest. We begin with Silverman’s dismissal of network nemeses Kevin “The One Whose Job I Was Begged To Take” Reilly (now of Fox) and Steve “I Gave Him A Huge Hit He Didn’t Even Want” McPherson as D-girls, fightin’ words if we’ve ever heard any: “The industry hasn’t seen an executive like me in a long time,” Silverman says. “Traditionally, development executives rise through a specific subsection of the TV business – prime time, network, scripted programming. They’re basically D-girls,” he says, using the derogatory industry slang for cute young development execs with little power. “That’s what [ABC Entertainment president] Steve McPherson is, that’s what [Fox Entertainment president] Kevin Reilly is. That’s bad vernacular, but they’re all D-girls.” More »
NBC’s Silverman, ABC’s McPherson Fail To Provide Expected Bloodshed At HRTS Panel
6:00AM Defamer Hollywood | Even though yesterday’s Hollywood Radio and TV Society luncheon and panel discussion has to be declared an overall disappointment because NBC perfect storm Ben Silverman and combative ABC president Steve McPherson, appearing together for the first time since McPherson challenged the network rival who took his best buddy’s job to “be a man,” failed to come to the blows the assembled journalists not-so-secretly hoped for, director/producer Barry Sonnenfeld did earn positive notices (”One of the HRTS’ more lively moderators in recent memory!” raves Variety) for his hosting work at the event. THR compiles a greatest hits package of Sonnenfeld’s attempts at comic relief: Sonnenfeld quickly set the tone Tuesday by opening with a story about the size of his penis. More »NBC’s Ben Silverman Handicaps The Fall TV Season
4:30AM Defamer Hollywood | Which network, you might ask, will be washed into fourth place when NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman unleashes his perfect television storm on his helpless competitors? In a Very Special Synergistic Conversation with CNBC chatshow personality Michael Eisner to air tomorrow night, the brash young conqueror of boob-tube worlds predicts it’s Fox that will feel the resurgent’s Peacock’s fury (who can forget those terrifying cake-talons?), as Silverman ironically uses the very programs developed by NBC predecessor/newly appointed Foxster Kevin Reilly to bury his rival’s network while it awaits American Idol-led Nielsen salvation. More »
Trade Roundup: ABC Very Gay-Responsible
6:30AM Defamer Hollywood | · GLAAD’s first-ever “Network Responsibility Index” rates each network for how well they “handle the still-sensitive issue of depicting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals on TV.” ABC got the highest rating for shows like Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters, and the upcoming Cavemen, sure to stir up much constructive discussion about gay-caveman stereotypes. [Variety] · International audiences flock to The Simpsons Movie, where the hilarious image of a grown man choking his son transcends all geocultural boundaries. [Variety] · Kevin Reilly greenlights his first project for Fox – The Oaks, about “three different couples who inhabit the same house at three different times,” all of whom are visited by ghosts. Ben Silverman reads this, secretly thinks to himself: “But where’s the sexy?” [Variety] · Scott Rudin buys the rights to best-seller The Dangerous Book for Boys, sure to inspire countless “Dangerous Book for Assistants” parodies, featuring merit badges for hurled-object ducking. [THR] · Evil babies and flashback jokes appear never to get old, as The Family Guy wins Sunday night for Fox. More »
Steve McPherson Vs. Ben Silverman: “Be A Man”
1:45AM Defamer Hollywood | Since there’s nothing like a burgeoning feud between two of the most powerful men in television to enliven a seemingly endless string of Television Critics Association-generated reports about the coming Fall season, we’re delighted to note that ABC president Steve McPherson has come out swinging about newly appointed NBC co-chairman/chime-bearer/rock-star Ben Silverman, whom McPherson apparently felt was a little less than honest in discussing his high-profile adoption of Grey’s Anatomy orphan Isaiah Washington and in the way he pleaded ignorance of the bloody execucide of predecessor Kevin Reilly that cleared the path for Silverman to take control of the Peacock. TVGuide.com relates McPherson’s comments about the Isaiah situation: Silverman told reporters at his July 16 session with the Television Critics Association that he had begun talking with Washington “before he became available” and said he was shocked when ABC decided to let him go. “When he told me he was available I was like, ‘You are? Wait, I don’t understand. What do you mean? You’re a huge star on a star television show.’” he said. “I don’t quite understand what had gone on there.” More »
Trade Roundup: NBC: Kevin Reilly Wasn’t Fired, He Just Wasn’t Comfortable Sitting In Ben Silverman’s Lap All Day
3:55AM Defamer Hollywood | · At the Television Critics Association Press Tour, non-rock-star NBC co-chairman Marc Graboff repeats the hilarious party line on Kevin Reilly’s non-firing “‘He wasn’t fired,’ Graboff revealed, inspiring instant guffaws. ‘What happened was when Ben [Silverman] became available, about three months after we made Kevin’s new deal, we jumped at the opportunity to bring Ben on board to the company. We thought he would be able to be the person that was going to take us to the next level. Kevin, when that happened, realised or determined, frankly, that there was just no role for him at the company and decided to move on.’” In fairness, it does get a little hard to do your job when the new guy keeps interrupting your meetings to replace another piece of your office furniture with his own. [THR] · Acquisitive News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch moves closer to buying Dow Jones and adding the Wall Street Journal to his ever-growing pile of media playthings. [Variety] · Producers open their negotiations with the Writers Guild of America by offering the guild a choice: either get down on your knees and put off the issue of internet compensation until a study about new media can be completed or bend over and let us recoup whatever costs we think are fair before we pay you any residuals. Talks have been convened until Wednesday to give the writers time to craft a counterproposal that doesn’t start with the words “Go fuck yourself, greedy maniacs.” [THR] · Says Var on the tenor of those initial negotiations: “The gloves have already come off.” But, as noted above, not the pants. Yet. [Variety] · Hell’s Kitchen still inexplicably popular. [Variety] More »
Trade Roundup: Other Network Jobs That Might One Day Be Available To New Fox Hire Kevin Reilly
2:45AM Defamer Hollywood | · ABC’s Steve McPherson on Monday’s announcement that pal Kevin Reilly is headed to Fox: “I hear when they fire me, he’s going to come run this place,” McPherson said. He then continued, his face rapidly draining of blood, “Haha, I’m just kidding guys, my job is completely safe. Guys? Guys? We’re fixing Cavemen, I told you that yesterday!” [Variety] · Every basic cable Christmas special should find a place for former 90210 star Shannen Doherty, whose very presence announces the arrival of a magical Yuletide spirit. [THR] · Finally: Desperately Seeking Susan: The Musical! Featuring, bizarrely, music from Deborah Harry and Blondie’s back catalogue. Will the story still play with “Heart of Glass” instead of “Into the Groove”? Developing… [Variety] More »
