Silverman In, Reilly Out, at NBC

BURBANK, May 29: NBC’s president of entertainment, Kevin
Reilly, is exiting the network just three months after signing a new three-year
contract, as part of a management restructure that sees Reveille chief Ben
Silverman becoming co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television
Studio alongside Marc Graboff, with both executives reporting to Jeff Zucker,
the president and CEO of NBC Universal.

Silverman and Graboff will have responsibility for all
aspects of the network’s prime-time, late-night and daytime programming, and
will also oversee the entertainment division’s digital efforts, including
NBC.com, and all of the network and television studio’s creative, marketing,
business, and financial components.

Silverman has had a hand in a string of hits, including
NBC’s own The Office, as well as ABC’s Ugly
Betty and Showtime’s The Tudors. Zucker said of his appointment: “After years of
working with him as an agent, a supplier to both our broadcast and cable networks,
and as a producer, we’ve come to know him as one of the most savvy and
successful executives in the industry. I always thought this was the right job
for Ben. This new role will give him the opportunity to redefine our
programming, our relationship with advertisers, and our ongoing commitment to
the new digital frontier.”

Silverman is the founder and CEO of Reveille, which earlier
this year entered into an expanded arrangement with NBC Universal that gave
both the broadcast network and the company’s cable properties a first look at
all scripted and unscripted projects. With today’s announcement, that deal has
been extended for two more years.

Graboff, who was named president of NBC Universal
Television, West Coast, in February 2007, will continue his leadership role in domestic
TV distribution. “Marc is a proven and respected executive whose wealth of
expertise in so many divisions will continue to be a huge plus in this
realignment,” Zucker said. He has superb business acumen and an instinctive
grasp of our expanding company and its multiple platforms, and is positioning
NBC for the future. Marc and Ben have a long and successful history of working
together that gives us tremendous confidence in the strength of this new
partnership.”

Reilly has struggled to pull NBC out of its fourth-place
ranking among the networks, despite ushering in hits like Heroes and critical darlings such as My Name is
Earl, 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights.