NBC's Reilly and the Anonymous Email

So NBC's Entertainment President Kevin Reilly, who had just signed a new three-year contract in March, is out and NBC Universal President/CEO Jeff Zucker is recruiting (or has recruited, depending on which outlet you believe) Reveille topper Ben Silverman to come in and hopefully pull the fourth-ranked network out of the cellar. This story started kicking up dust this past Friday when an anonymous tipster emailed the news of Zucker's negotiations with Silverman to several media outlets, Variety reports. Another person who received this email was Reilly himself, who hadn't been officially told about their discussions. But it should also be noted that Deadline Hollywood Daily first reported this executive shuffle on Friday.

Regardless of who broke the story, the real news is the changes that are taking place at NBC and the speed with which they are happening. As the Wall Street Journal points out, the shake-up reflects the pressure that NBC and Zucker are under to improve ratings at the network. Between Sept. 18 and April 29, NBC attracted an average of 3.8 million daily prime-time viewers age 18 to 40, the demo it sells to advertisers. That's a 9 % drop from the previous year, according to Nielsen.

The timing of his departure indicates that the big bosses didn't have much faith in Reilly's fall season, which was presented at upfronts two weeks ago. But many are wondering if the 36-year-old Silverman, who had delivered hits such as ABC's Ugly Betty and NBC's The Office and The Biggest Loser, can fix the network's problems (the guy apparently doesn't have a lot of management on his resume). But one immediate innovation might be that Silverman would take control of both NBC and its in-house production company, which was not the case with Reilly. Having one person oversee the schedule and studio could potentially help streamline the network, eliminate in fighting between the two units and cut costs.

Assuming this all goes down as expected, where might Reilly, the former FX boss and man behind NBC's breakout hit Heroes, land? Well, as Variety points out, there's a top slot open at HBO.