Today's column looks at the Kevin Reilly-for-Ben Silverman executive shuffle at NBC, which was sad but inevitable. (A lot of us assumed that Reilly would be fired much sooner than this, as a fall guy for Zucker's sins.) There are also some brief thoughts at the end on Lifetime's "Army Wives," which I didn't hate. (Probably wouldn't watch it again voluntarily, though.)
Loving the rumor that goes around, according which Reilly will assume Albrecht's position over at HBO.
ReplyDeleteBetween developing "The Shield" or "Friday Night Lights", and sticking by "30 Rock" or "The Office", you just know this guy is a great fit for cable. Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but he was too good for network TV anyway.
Thank you for describing Jeff Zucker as "failing up the corporate ladder." He was completely unqualified to run NBC, drove it into the ground, and then ended up with an even better job. Can someone please explain to me how this happened? Especially when more talented people like Kevin Reilly are being fired for inheriting Zucker's mistakes?
ReplyDeleteI think this quote from the movie Go perfectly sums it up:
ReplyDelete"You know what wakes me up in the middle of the night covered in a cold sweat? Knowing that you aren't any worse than anyone else in your whole screwed up generation. In the old days, you know how you got to the top? Huh? By being better than the guy ahead of you. How do you people get to the top? By being so f***ing incompetent, that the guy ahead of you can't do his job, so he falls on his ass and congratulations, you are now on top. And now the top is down here, it used to be up here... and you don't even know the f***ing difference."
"Loving the rumor that goes around, according which Reilly will assume Albrecht's position over at HBO."
ReplyDeleteI also heard, on Media Life's site, that Gail Berman could have taken over for Reilly. I'm not sure how true that is, but if it's even remotely true, how do the writers know? And if not, how do they come to such a rumor?
"Between developing 'The Shield' or 'Friday Night Lights,' and sticking by '30 Rock' or 'The Office'..."
It'll be very interesting to see the reaction of the press if NBC does pretty well in the fall. I don't expect it to fly high, but there's always a decent chance that one or two of its shows could take off. Would Reilly get the credit? It could be a similar situation to what happened a few years ago, when Susan Lyne was fired from ABC before the fall season started, and then saw shows she picked or at least agreed to--"DH," "Lost," and then a few months later, "GA"--take off.
"Can someone please explain to me how this happened?"
If memory serves me correctly, he was being promoted at a time when NBC still wasn't entirely in the toilet. And perhaps once he's in a different job, he's judged on slightly different standards, thus making the failures at the network look like they are outside of his responsibilities.