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More executive shake-ups are occurring at NBC Universal, this time affecting executives at the very top. The Peacock is expected to announce today that it has fired Kevin Reilly, the network’s entertainment president since 2004.
Ben Silverman, a William Morris Agency executive who founded Reveille studio, is expected to replace him, writes Variety. Reilly had just signed a three-year contract in March, and will be given a financial package to leave.
Mark Graboff, NBC U West Coast president, is expected to work more closely with Silverman than he did with Reilly.
Reilly is considered by some to have been hampered in turning the network’s fourth-place standing around because he was not given the autonomy and authority to develop the depth and breadth of programming necessary to do so, according to Mediaweek.
Reilly was responsible for bring My Name is Earl, Deal or No Deal, Heroes and The Office (produced by Silverman’s Reveille studio) to the network. At FX, Reilly brought hit dramas such as The Shield and Nip/Tuck to the schedule.
Sources say that Reilly was told he could do only half the number of pilots the other Big Four networks were developing for the 2007-08 season. Reilly put a positive spin on the situation during his upfront presentation, saying that the network wasn’t putting so many new shows on the schedule that they would get lost among other fall shows. But it seems clear to insiders that NBC does not have enough new shows on its schedule to give it a serious shot at significantly boosting ratings.
All sectors of the media business will suffer from the weakened economy in 2008 and 2009, with a slump in local advertising particularly hurting newspapers and local TV, according to a new projection from Goldman Sachs.
Broadcast nets will experience…
The New York Times is shuttering its International Herald Tribune site; NYTimes.com will soon host the international news normally reserved for its sister website.
The move is not about cost savings, but rather about growth, NYTimes.com general manager Vivian Schiller…
Unilever’s Vaseline set forth on an unusual research project in a small town in Alaska. Setting up a storefront, the company began giving away free bottles of lotion and asking recipients to name the person who had recommended they come…
Meet the Press, the show hosted by Tim Russert for 17 years before his death last June, is beginning to slip in ratings.
Last month, CBS’s Face the Nation pulled ahead of Meet the Press for the first time in two…
Bloggers collectively create nearly one million blog posts each day, and half of bloggers believe blogs will be a primary source of news and entertainment in the next five years, according to Technorati’s 2008 State of the Blogosphere Report, MarketingCharts writes.…
Wal-Mart and Costco reported same-store gains in September, with sales rising 2.4% and 9% respectively. Sales at Target stores open at least a year fell 3%, writes Retailer Daily.
Below, fiscal results from the discount retail giants:
Sales of food and…
