Ben Silverman's Greatest Hits

As we told you yesterday, NBC's Ben Silverman is leaving the network for a new venture he's starting with Barry Diller of IAC/InterActiveCorp. Some new details are beginning to emerge—and not just from Ryan Seacrest's Twitter account—about the anything-but-unexpected shakeup that sent Silverman out the door and NBC Universal cable head Jeff Gaspin to the top network job.

The New York Post's Peter Lauria is estimating that Diller and Silverman may be rounding up as much as $200 million in funding for the as-yet-unnamed company, which IAC's press release will "capitalize on the ever-evolving world of multimedia production and distribution, leveraging unique marketing expertise." (Ever-evolving! Can our species keep up?)

Looking back on Silverman's reign of error—Will NBC Suck Less Now? asked a headline on E! Online—NBC Universal president Jeff Zucker told The New York Times Bill Carter and Brian Stelter "Clearly we are going to have to re-message NBC’s brand."

Here's a quick look back at some of the shows NBC ran under Silverman in the last two years. Even his moments of success (usually in ratings) turned to flops after a while. Consider this collection Silverman's greatest hits.

American Gladiators

Announced in August 2007.

The reboot of the 1990's entertainment-competition show was developed by Silverman's production company, Reveille, and in the works with NBC before the network hired him. The Hollywood Reporter described NBC as "desperate for original programming" in a January 2008 review and The Seattle Times (among many others) called it "cheesy." Amazingly, the show (hosted by Hulk Hogan) did have high ratings at its start but was canceled in August 2008.

Lipstick Jungle

Announced in May 2007.

Based on Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell's novel of the same name, the series earned the following description by The Washington Post's Tom Shales: "You feel you're not watching a show so much as flipping through a catalogue of gaudy and pricey luxuries—glittery junk that nobody needs—and being expected to drool on cue." The show was canceled in December 2008, then un-canceled in January 2009, then mercifully put down for good in February 2009.

Knight Rider

Announced in October 2007.

13 million people watched the 1980s action show redo when it premiered in February 2008 but the bad car puns started early, as with "'Knight Rider': Not Up to Speed," by Robert Bianco in USA Today, who called the show "a shockingly incompetent, barely coherent, ad-driven rip-off." It was canceled in March 2008 after a 21 percent drop-off in viewers.

Kath & Kim

Announced in July 2007.

Silverman was touting the Australian version of the show—which he described to The New York Times as "Roseanne meets Ab Fab"—as far back as 2006 when Reveille optioned it for American television. When it premiered in October 2008, Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker gave it a C- and wrote, "The core problem with K&K is that there's no character to root for." The show was canceled in May 2009.