Next Up on NBC: Deal or No Deal for Silverman?

Two weeks after the annual television upfront presentations and just months after inking a new three-year contract, General Electric's NBC division said it will jettison its top programming executive. So, I'm guessing things went well?

Hollywood blogger Nikke Finke broke the rumor on Friday, and the Wall Street Journal reported today that NBC plans to replace its entertainment chief, Kevin Reilly, with rising production star Ben Silverman, above, on the set of The Office.

The timing of the swap suggests that bigwigs at 30 Rock are none too pleased with the line-up that Reilly put together for Fall 2007, which he unveiled earlier in the month to advertisers and media buyers at the May "upfront" presentation.

Bloggers and industry-watchers certainly weren't wowed by Reilly's efforts. After taking a first look at NBC's prime-time programming lineup for fall, Finke, a notorious Hollywood insider, wrote "If 4th-place NBC thinks it's going to get to No. 1 with this schedule, it's delusional."

NBC Universal president Jeff Zucker has probably been under pressure from parent company General Electric to improve ratings for a while now, since the network slid from No. 1 to No. 4 position in the two years since Reilly took the job.

Between September 18 and April 29 of this year, NBC saw a 9 percent drop in the valuable 18- to 24-year-old demographic from the year-earlier period, according to the Wall Street Journal.

But Zucker's abrupt decision to can Reilly might be a Hail Mary pass--a last-ditch appeal to advertisers, who are in currently the middle of hashing out how much money they'll commit to each of the networks in the coming season.

It's also a sign Zucker, the former occupant of Reilly's position, is going back on his decision to appoint a numbers guy rather than a creative type as his successor.

Whereas Zucker and Silverman both have professional backgrounds in TV production, Reilly rose up through the executive ranks within NBC.

Silverman, 36 years young and a notorious bon-vivant, is responsible for developing one of the network's only current standout series, "The Office."

On Monday, Finke added that Marc Graboff would also be promoted, and charged with managing the business side of Reilly's former position--a sensible compliment to Silverman's creative prowess.

Finke speculates that if NBC and Silverman cannot come to terms--he's likely to be expensive--the network to promote an insider like Jeff Gaspin or Bonnie Hammer.

by Liz Gunnison

Photograph of Ben Silverman by J. Emilio Flores/Corbis