NBC Universal Inc.

Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio and executive producer of NBC's The Office, The Biggest Loser, and ABC's Ugly Betty, appeared on Charlie Rose last night to talk about YouTube vs. Hulu, the iPhone, the awesomeness of The Today Show, and other yawn-inducing topics.

A quote from Mr. Silverman during the interview:

'Digital delivery has altered how entertainment is both produced and delivered forever. And it will continue to alter and evolve.'

Ho-hum. The interview left us nonplussed.

But he certainly agitated Nikki Finke. "Yes, I feel so much better about NBC bettering its primetime prospects now that I've watched Ben Silverman toss around phrases like 'disintermediated from my audience via technology' and 'trigger digital activation' on Charlie Rose last night," she wrote on her blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily. "Silly me for thinking that Ben was hired to program the network instead of parrot advertising-speak."  read more »

While print media is slowly losing its rock stars, it looks like the digital world is taking a hit too. George Kliavkoff, the chief digital officer at NBC Universal and one of the people responsible for bringing Hulu into the mix, is leaving the company a year before his contract expires. He announced his resignation in a memo:

I always said that if I did my job well, there would be no need for a centralized digital function at NBCU in 3-5 years because the digital businesses within each business unit would be at scale. While I'm not declaring victory, and Digital Media will continue to exist as part of the Strategy & Development group, I think much of my work here is done and I’m looking forward to other challenges.  read more »

At this point we realize that asking a television network to produce shows with any semblance of originality is a fool's errand. Honestly, it doesn't even bother us that much anymore. Some of our favorite shows are totally derivative of prior ideas. However! When major networks wantonly continue their crappy unoriginality, our blood begins to boil. Case in point: just one day after Fox inexplicably renewed Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, NBC announced that they've ordered a full season of Knight Rider.

Are you kidding? The only thing worse than the reviews for Knight Rider are its Nielsen ratings; the most recent episode drew in only  read more »

Can't wait until Monday night to watch Chuck? Well you don't have to! For the next three days, Hulu will have the second season premiere of Josh Schwartz's spy-comedy available to watch online with only limited commercial interruptions (though you mind find yourself buying Olay products by the time you're through.)

Chuck grew on us throughout its truncated opening season, seemingly getting better with each passing episode. We watched the season premiere last night and are happy to report the show remains on the right track. The episode, titled "Chuck vs. The First Date," contains the usual array of cheesiness and sweetness all wrapped in a funny forty-two minute package.  read more »

The gaudy peacock, the male of the peafowl species, frequently attracts and then mates with a seraglio of adoring peahens.

Similarly, NBC Universal, media giant of the peacock logo, has attracted a harem of brokers, all hoping to score the big deal that will garner the conglomerate more than 600,000 square feet in Manhattan, and garner the broker a sizable nest egg. “NBC is the 800-pound peacock in the market,” laughed one real estate insider.

But while the dazzling cock can satisfy multiple hens, NBC Universal can satisfy only one. It is, therefore, a very eligible bachelor.

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Deadline Hollywood's Nikki Finke is reporting that NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman will be appearing this season on HBO's glitzy Hollywood fantasia Entourage.

As Ms. Finke writes:

Fox mogul Tom Rothman and NBC mogul about to go-go Ben Silverman will appear in cameos this fall as well as ABC's The View and film critics Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips. Now exactly whose idea is that edgy viewing? Unless, of course, Ben is partaking of weed or worse on air.

Mr. Silveman, who is assumed by some to be the basis for B.J. Novak's temp-turned-ambitious executive on The Office, will probably not be toking any weed on HBO after Esquire"s Matthew Belloni  read more »

For the past year, the media universe has been filled with rumors that General Electric would sell NBC Universal after the conclusion of the Beijing Olympics, which kick off this coming Friday night.

But today Reuters reports that many major Wall Street investors now see the sale as unlikely.

"What's changed their view?" reports Reuters. "The realization that with the second-largest U.S. company by market capitalization already looking to sell off tens of billions of dollars of businesses as part of massive restructuring, selling a business with growing profits might be an unnecessary distraction."

More from the article:

"They have a lot on their plate right now," said Mike McGarr, a portfolio manager at Becker Capital Management, a Portland, Oregon company that oversees $2.5 billion in assets and counts GE among its holdings. "There's a point where you only want to have so many moving parts."

Another tribute to the late Tim Russert, this time from Late Night with Conan O'Brien on Hulu.com. On Friday, just a few hours after Mr. Russert's death was announced, Mr. O'Brien said in his monologue, "This is pretty shocking for us He's been a pretty good friend to me and us here at the show." Mr. O'Brien added that Mr. Russert's son, Luke, had been one of his show's interns last year.

Mr. O'Brien praised Mr. Russert by saying, "From the moment I met him, he put me at ease. I always told him countless times, he reminded me of my Irish Catholic uncles: Big head"—here he gestured to indicate he meant big in size, not in self-regard— "big laugh, huge heart."  read more »

According to The Hollywood Reporter's Alex Woodson, Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels received a "lifetime achievement award for the role that 'Saturday Night Live' has played in the development of online video" at last night's Webby Awards.  read more »

There were no surprises at 30 Rock today as NBC announced the new host of Late Night when current host Conan O'Brien decamps to 11:30 PM sometime in 2009. As far back as February 2007, Bill Carter, The New York Times' veteran TV reporter and de facto historian of late night, had been reporting that Saturday Night Live alum Jimmy Fallon would be tapped to host the show. As reporters and film crews assembled on the 67th floor to take their lucite seats in a room with floor-to-ceiling windows dramatically framing a rainy, overcast day, Fallon's name was openly bandied about.  read more »

Look out, Pat Kiernan! The world of round-the-clock local New York news channels is about to get a whole lot more competitive.

According to The New York Times’ Bill Carter, NBC Universal is planning to start a 24-hour local news channel, to be called … “New York’s Newschannel.”

 

More from the Times:  read more »

NBC has moved 30 Rock to 9:30 p.m. on Thursdays, butting it out of its self-proclaimed "family hour," from 8 to 9 p.m. The schedule change comes a couple of weeks after NBC had the Parents Television Council calling them "hypocritical" for tainting their (antiquated, irrelevant) "family hour." "You know, 30 Rock just a couple of weeks ago had a show that I can't even mention, with a vulgar acronym for older women that pursue younger men," said Dan Isett, a PTC spokesman. He was talking about MILF Island, a Survivor-like reality show in which 50 eighth grade boys are stranded on an island with 20 "holy hot mamas."  read more »

NBC has applied more Lipstick Jungle, ordering six more episode scripts, according to Variety. The show's ratings are catching those coveted 18-34 slot among women, apparently. Maybe it's hitting a note among those women that Cashmere Mafia was too corny to reach (the show was recently axed from ABC's line-up). In Sara Vilkomerson's Observer article on Lipstick Jungle, star Brooke Shields discussed how the show tackles real women's issues. “I like that it’s not only about the happily ever after,” Ms. Shields told the Observer. “What I love about these women is that the goal is not finding the man and having that be the only type of happiness. We spend so much of our younger years thinking that’s what you have to get: you have to get the relationship, you have to get the family. … Now when you’re actually in it, when you get what you wished for, how do you spend your days in it?”

A recent episode of 'Race For the White House.'

“MSNBC and NBC are one,” said Phil Griffin. “We’ve said that for over a decade. It actually is true now.”

Mr. Griffin, the senior vice president of NBC News, was speaking on the phone to NYTV on Monday afternoon. He had brought up the unification of the two news operations as a way of explaining the internal politics underpinning the launch of MSNBC’s new prime-time show, Race for the White House, which premiered on March, 17 at 6 p.m., replacing Tucker.  read more »

Not only will David Shuster, the MSNBC talent who got into trouble over claiming the Clinton campaign had "pimped out" former first daughter Chelsea on the hustings, be returning to the network; his suspension will have lasted two weeks, and he'll be back in time for the NBC-sponsored debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama Feb. 26. Broadcasting & Cable reports:  read more »

After Hillary seemed to suggest that his suspension was not enough of a punishment for his pimp remark, MSNBC affirmed to Greg Sargent at Talking Points Memo that David Shuster will not be fired.

"He remains on suspension indefinitely, but he will not be fired and will be returning to MSNBC," MSNBC director of communications Alana Russo told Sargent, who then speculates (pretty plausibly, we think) what it all means:  read more »

NBC's CEO Jeff Zucker has been hinting that the network will cancel their song-and-dance spectacular for advertisers at Radio City Music Hall in May. Although no official announcement has been made, the writers' strike is affecting the spring series of presentations, which preview upcoming shows and schedules to lure advertisers into spending the big bucks for the best spots. With writers still on the picket lines, there are no new scripts to start developing in time to show Madison Avenue.  read more »

NBC executives have emerged from their Sunday night sweat-lodge, in which an answer was sought as to how they might telecast the Golden Globe awards without brining an angry storm of controversy upon their tribe.  read more »

With no end to the writers strike in sight, NBC is tapping into its cable sister station USA's hit shows Monk and Psych to fill out next year's spring schedule. The two shows run as a two-hour block on USA on Friday nights, are set to return with new episodes on the cable network Jan. 11.  read more »

Sorry, Kidd! NBC lapsed on its deadline to pick up time-travel drama Journeyman, starring Kevin McKidd, for a full season. According to Reuters, the show posted its lowest adults (aged 18-49) rating on Monday without Heroes to lead the charge.

The remaining two original segments will air as scheduled, an NBC spokeswoman said.  read more »

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In a meeting yesterday, Jay Leno told his staff he'd continue to pay their salaries through Christmas, Variety reports.

Previously, Mr. Leno had been paying them on a week-by-week basis, which he'll continue to do after the holiday, he reportedly said.  read more »

While Carson Daly continues to get lambasted for continuing to tape his show during the strike, Conan O'Brien is getting kudos for helping his staff through the shutdown.  read more »

Quarterlife has set a new standard for circuitous routes to a TV network pickup, writes Hollywood Reporter's Andrew Wallenstein . First passed on by ABC, the drama series resurrected itself last week on MySpaceTV, only to have the ensuing buzz rekindle interest from NBC, which has scheduled it for midseason.  read more »

NBC has greenlit production on Kings, a modern retelling of the King David story penned by Michael Green, a producer and writer for Heroes, and former producer of Everwood and Smallville.

Variety reports:

People familiar with the script said "Kings" could work well as a companion to "Heroes."  read more »

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Producer longs for YouTube: NBC vigilantes scrub web preparing for Fox site; skits are put in a lockbox.  read more »

“If someone had a gun to my head and said, ‘Define yourself,’ I’d have to ju  read more »

Isn’t it Tisch? Odd Bedfellows Denise Rich and Elie Wiesel Hype Hotelier’s New Book  read more »

Isn’t it Tisch? Odd Bedfellows Denise Rich and Elie Wiesel Hype Hotelier’s New Book  read more »

It’s hard to leave home if your dad is the billionaire Mayor of New York, especially if he has  read more »

If he cares to, Josh Wolf can claim his place in the Guinness Book of Records.  read more »

Last week, after 39-year-old Jeff Zucker was crowned president of the newly merged NBC Universal Tel  read more »

Last night, NBC Nightly News reported Ari Fleischer's testimony from the Scooter Libby trial, in which the former press guy said he had sought immunity from prosecution because he had done the very thing that Libby is accused of doing: disclosed the fact that Bush enemy Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA—Fleischer said, to two reporters, including David Gregory of NBC. Fleischer's testimony hurts Libby because he said that he had learned as much from Libby himself some time before.

NBC should have reported whether its employee, Gregory, agrees with Fleischer's account (According to Fox News, the other reporter, John Dickerson of Time, disputes it).

Starting at 7 a.m., Hillary Clinton will make appearances on NBC's Today Show, ABC's Good Morning America, CBS's Early Show, and CNN's American Morning to talk about the President's State of the Union Address

At 8 a.m., Gale Brewer is honored at the Reading Reform Foundation breakfast at the Woolworth Tower Kitchen

At 9:30 a.m., the legislature begins to screen comptroller candidates in Albany.

Also at 9:30 a.m., Mike Bloomberg and others attend the Mayors Against Illegal Guns National Summit in D.C.

At 10 a.m., Helen Marshall gives her state of the borough report at York College in Queens.

At 11 a.m., a tenants' group names the city's "most abusive landlord," and holds a convention on affordable housing, at 55 Washington Square South.

At 12:30, Hillary, Chuck Schumer and New York's congressional delegation discuss 9/11-related illnesses of first responders at a press conference in D.C.

At 1 p.m. , Christine Quinn visits the Beth Jacob of Boro Park School in Brooklyn, then the Hatzolah Dispatch Center at 1:45 p.m.; Ohel's Children's Home at 2:15 p.m.; and the W.E.B. Dubois High School Web Center at 3:30 p.m.

At 4 p.m., the NYC Board of Elections will hold a hearing about the new voting machines, at 42 Broadway.

At 6 p.m., Christine Quinn will hold a Neighborhood Forum on community and police relations, at Harlem Hospital.

The President gives his State of the Union speech.

Speech-watching parties are being held on West 44th Street by Laughing Liberally and on East 83rd Street by the Metropolitan Republican Club.

And Ben and the team at Politico make their debut over here.

-- Azi Paybarah

From Reuters:

"NBC has handed a cast-contingent pilot order to the drama 'M.O.N.Y.'

"The project centers on a socially conscious New York public advocate who is thrust into the uncomfortable position of becoming interim mayor and struggles to balance his moral center with the hardball realities of the city's politics."

Who gets to play him?

-- Azi Paybarah

Katie Couric, the anchor of the CBS Evening News, was in Georgia on Friday, Jan.  read more »

“I’m breaking down in all kinds of stress-related illnesses,” confessed Greg Danie  read more »

NBC Nightly News last night offered three separate soundbites of Tom Brokaw, first in its opening coverage of the Ford funeral, then in an interview by Brian Williams, then in a special section of excerpts of eulogies. The royal placement, which gave even Henry Kissinger lower billing, continues the NBC pattern, of wheeling Brokaw in to hold forth (usually predictably) on major events, and would seem to reflect Brokaw's reluctance to let go and Brian Williams' filial feelings; his manner when Brokaw appears is somewhat servile. I wonder what the servility masks, but no matter, it's a misuse of precious airtime.

What an irony, that a war advanced by many as an alternative to forging a peace in Jerusalem—indeed who saw it as a clean break from such negotiations—has had the opposite effect.

And how revealing, that in seizing on the Golan provision of the report as one of its greatest challenges, Tim Russert and Andrea Mitchell just now on MS-NBC both described the return of these high, watered lands as something "we" were being asked to do: Americans, American politicians. As though we might snap our fingers and this ally in the Middle East would respond. The Baker report was also forthright on this point. "No American Administration—Democrat or Republican—will ever abandon Israel."

On Oct.  read more »

Tonight, NY1 hosts a reporters roundtable.

On Saturday, the West Indian American Day Junior Carnival and parade kicks-off at St. John's Place and Kingston Ave. in Brooklyn at 10:30

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin talks about rebuilding his city at Tribeca Cinemas at 11:30.

Upstate congressional candidate Eric Massa stops by the New York State Festival of Balloons in Dansville at 4. (Balloons released at 6.)

On Sunday, the four three Democratic candidates for state attorney general debate on NBC (taped Friday) at 6:30 a.m.

PA Republican Senator Rick Santorum and challenger Bob Casey debate on Meet the Press. You can also send in your questions here.

The Annual Bronx Democratic County Committee Barbecue takes place at 135 Westchester Square from 1 - 5 p.m.

-- Azi Paybarah

“Touch my Peabody,” Brian Williams said.    read more »

“Touch my Peabody,” Brian Williams said.  read more »

I’m sorry, I just can’t resist.  read more »

I’m sorry, I just can’t resist.  read more »

Bad news is good news for journalists, and a Middle East in flames has launched a network star: Richard Engel of NBC. Never one to pontificate or editorialize, the Arabic speaker and BBC veteran lets human beings tell the story for him. Last night he did it again. Sorting thru rubble in Tyre, he found the pictures of a little girl, and went from one frightened local to another on the crazy notion that finding out who she was was more important than hearing how they are trying to save their skins. His search led him at last to the girl's father, who told him calmly that a warhead had killed his wife and two daughters, and he did not understand why...

On July 18, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 27th  read more »

Tabloid Wars--debuting July 24! On Bravo!--provides at least one important lesson about the New York media scene: Someone should keep a camera and microphone on ex-Lloyd Grove stringer Hudson Morgan 24 hours a day. The dapper, world-weary Morgan runs away with the series whenever the lens turns his way, delivering a reality-TV-ideal blend of astute self-presentation and clueless blabbing. He visibly knows what he ought to say, but he just as visibly can't stop himself from saying what he oughtn't.

Highlights of the wit and wisdom of Hudson Morgan, Former Boy Reporter:

* "There are basically two ways you can climb the media ladder. You can either slave away at, like, a magazine and just sort of be promoted from editorial assistant to editorial associate to associate editor to depu--you know. But that takes forever. The other way is you can somewhere less prestigious like the Post or the Daily News, and, you know, it's not necessarily the most glamourous position but you cut your teeth that way."

* "I think I should pitch this article about model / DJs, just because they seem neither good at modeling nor DJing."

* "You don't need a skill set so much as you need boundless energy. You're going all day long dealing with lobotomized publicists."

* [Into telephone] "That's interesting, but he's dead! We always have a problem writing about dead people. It's just like: Who cares?

* [Into telephone] "So what were all those NBC people doing there? What was that all about? They're like locusts."

* "I've always been interested in other people's business. I wouldn't necessarily call it a flaw. I'd say it's a vice. I'd say it's a weakness. Why not apply it to a career?"

* MORGAN: Even Sheryl Crow can't get Lance Armstrong into the sack during the Tour de France, blah blah blah, one quote. LLOYD GROVE: Why is Sheryl Crow--is she, is she, like, a great piece of ass? MORGAN: Sheryl Crow--yeah. GROVE: She is? MORGAN: Are you kidding? GROVE: I don't know! MORGAN: Do you know who she is? GROVE: That's why you're here, to tell me these things. MORGAN: Yeah! Yes!

* "I used to bring my girlfriend to some of these things, but it's just like--it was kind of a disaster. Well, we broke up two days ago. Because this job, like, it's just, it's, it's pretty much impossible to maintain a serious relationship and do this at the same time."

* "I don't think I really thought this through. I didn't think how it would affect relationships, goals, ambitions, not to mention health and inner peace and general feng shui. And I wasn't ready for people to come after me, because I'm only, like, an assistant. Like Gawker linked to this website that was, like, speculating that I was gay... And, you know, my grandfather read it because my mom was showing him how to Google on the Internet. It was really weird. It was disorienting to be scrutinized like this."

* "I'm too fucking busy with the column to figure out all the bad things it's done with me."

* "He [Adrian Grenier] was just like, 'You should do something that actually contributes to the greater good.' And I was just like, 'Why?'"

* "I somehow expected more out of Hackensack. I thought it was sort of a bobo paradise. And these office parks are just brutal. I don't do charity work because I get hives when I come to places like this."

* "It doesn't require any skill. Maybe it helps to be charming."

NBC News correspondent Chris Hansen stood in the dining room of a Fort Myers home and addressed his  read more »

Ten days ago I praised Richard Engel's beautiful and amazing story on NBC Nightly News about a Baghdad orphanage for girls whose parents had died because of the war we started. I was hardly alone. Last night Brian Williams said that the network had been overwhelmed by emails and calls about the story. The network then did something great: it reaired the story.

You will see that it has top billing on the NBC website. Here the headline is "How to Help Iraq's Orphans." NBC then suggests that viewers give money to Unicef, No More Victims, and two other nonprofit groups.

I don't think that's enough. By twice doing this story, for the edification and diversion of Americans in their kitchens, NBC has established a special connection that it should honor—a connection not to a generic group of Iraq orphans, but to these 56 girls. On last night's report, Engel said that masked men had lately come to the door of the orphanage. He showed the girls cowering in a back room. Will these girls now be a special focus of terrorism? The thought is almost too horrible to consider, but it should be on NBC's mind. What threat has this tearjerker exposed these girls to? What threat does life in Baghdad—a life far outside NBC's bunkered bureau and flakjackets—expose them to?

Last night, Williams said that adoption by Americans was impossible. But there is an obvious answer. These girls should be evacuated. NBC should take steps to achieve that, even if that means getting them into the NBC bunker. My best guess is that evacuation means Syria, where in January I saw some of the hundreds of thousands of former neighbors who were now living peaceful lives. And my wife's cousin, who teaches in Damascus, told of teaching Iraqi refugees, some the victims of kidnaping.