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Running a network can certainly come with its slings and arrows, something Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios (he shares the title with Marc Graboff) has certainly felt since he took the position in May after NBC had announced its upfronts.

But it was certainly was a smart move for NBC. While the network has had some very buzz-worthy shows over the years like FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, THE OFFICE, 30 ROCK, but translating them into ratings gold has been a much slower process and they need fresh blood to mix things up a bit.

And Silverman’s background having successfully launched the independent production company Reveille (which happens to produce THE OFFICE, UGLY BETTY and THE TUDORS among others) made him the perfect fit to come into NBC, figure out what was working, how other things could be improved and discover other ways to promote NBC’s shows and spread the gospel.

Silverman has spoken of the influence former NBC guru Brandon Tartikoff who resurrected NBC from the ashes in the ‘80s with inventive programming and his unbridled enthusiasm for the medium and it’s likely a similar resurrection is in store for NBC under such savvy leadership especially with the great numbers BIONIC WOMAN nabbed this week opposite GREY'S ANATOMY spin-off PRIVATE PRACTICE and former Wednesday night ratings darling CRIMINAL INTENT.

Now that the dust has settled, and the inherited Fall programming slate has kicked into full gear (with a few Silverman tweaks along the way), iF Magazine was fortunate enough to speak with exec at this summer’s Television Critic’s press tour. What surprised us most, was not only did he graciously take time out to speak with iF (we’re not TV Guide, Variety or the Hollywood Reporter – yet – so we could have been easily brushed off), but he also proved to us (by dropping references like FLETCH and SPIES LIKE US) that if he weren’t running a network or launching production shingles, he would likely have our jobs running a pop culture magazine like this.

The following is iF’s candid and exclusive conversation with the NBC exec.

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iF MAGAZINE: Has it been an easy transition from the production side of things to the executive desk?

BEN SILVERMAN: Having come from the production side, one of my favorite things has been playing in and around the new access points for me, so you can enact your vision quickly. You really have to know what the research department does, before you know how to deploy it and how to work with your scheduling department, before you necessarily change the schedule. And to know what you can do in connection with your marketing department and how you can influence that. You can adjust the marketing and have it show up in print and promos in much more defining way than trying to change a character in an entire television show, which is harder to do.

iF: NBC has been quick in the past to cancel under-performing genre shows, will you give some of these shows a little more of a chance to find their audience since there always seems to be rabid fans clamoring for even the least-loved genre programs?

SILVERMAN: All of our shows have to define a mythology that has rules, because I’m always looking for what the rules are, but you also have to appeal to my sister and mother, who want to see the characters evolve. HEROES nailed it. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA on SCI FI nailed and I think we can nail it with JOURNEYMAN, which is that love triangle. It’s a time travel love story. CHUCK is the same thing. It’s the quarter-life crisis, with this really compelling twentysomething boy, but it’s also this huge heightened world, fantastical FLETCH meets SPIES LIKE US meets fantasy, so I think looking for the grounding in all of it and looking for the places they can leap off. If you have critical acknowledgement or a particular fan base that is rabid for it, it’s a lot easier to stick with. If everyone is rejecting it, you’re not going to stick with it.

iF: The web is playing a big deal in marketing of genre shows – you’ve been a big proponent of that.

SILVERMAN: I’m all about cross-platform and content. I’m not necessarily grounded into one rule in any direction. I do try to live by multiple interpretations.

iF: Comedy, now that SCRUBS is going off the air ….

SILVERMAN: … we’ll see. APPRENTICE was off this summer, and I brought it back.

iF:  The tricky thing, with only one night of comedy, you don’t have many places to drop in a new comedy show and try it out. What is the strategy to build the “next” potential hit comedy show on NBC?

SILVERMAN: [It’s about] opening up other nights to comedy and looking at comedy and saying “is it only a half hour?” The Norman Lear/Nina Coleman show we're developing, it’s definitely a comedy, but it’s an hour. It’s more like MOONLIGHTING, than in the LAW & ORDER world. So we’re going after comedy wherever it lives. We’re going to try some multi-camera [comedies], because we’ve been waded in single camera. We’re going to try some one-hour, where we’ve been weighted in half-hours and try to mix it up and find the rhythm that works. We want tremendous concepts, married to unbelievable writing and married to unbelievable characters and actors, with humor, with comedy, with connection, with emotion. It’s a hard recipe.

iF: How do you look at reality TV on the schedule? Is it as a pitch hitter when something fails or is it integrated?

SILVERMAN: I definitely look at it as part of it. As I look [at other networks], why is Fox #1 – AMERICAN IDOL. Why is ABC as strong as it is -- DANCING WITH THE STARS, because it’s 90 minutes of the air every week. SURVIVOR still carries and drives CBS Thursday night. For me, I never view the genres in any ghettos. I view the genres as all serving each other, and I believe the audience is tuning into a show, an experience, and an emotional effect. I don’t think they’re tuning in to a genre. Some time you’re in the mood to laugh, to see a great mystery or to see real people. I think your mood changes and I think the programming can suit the mood and I think you need a line-up of programs to service you.

iF: Okay, hard question. STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP, if you were there when they were making the final decision for a second season, would you have canceled STUDIO 60?

SILVERMAN: I wouldn’t have picked it up. If you already bought 30 ROCK, how could you buy another show, set in the same environment with numbers in the title. I loved it, but before it was picked up, I would not have picked it up. Would I have desperately wanted Matthew Perry and Amanda Peet, Aaron Sorkin, Tommy Schlamme. Absolutely. But they committed to 30 ROCK [last year], they had Tina Fey, how do you do STUDIO 60? That’s where I wouldn’t have said "yes." Had I not had 30 ROCK, I would have bought STUDIO 60. Whichever one I had committed to, would have been the one I committed to.

iF: You’ve talked in the past, where you’ve said you grew up what Brandon Tartikoff did at NBC and watching all those shows growing up. Next year, when you’re doing the fall schedule, where do you think NBC will be?

SILVERMAN: It’s a big mixture and a balance and I hope we improve and grow off of what we’re able to do with marketing and our mid-season opportunities especially with the reality shows that we can bring to air quickly. And I’m looking forward to an upfront that introduces some winners on top of the winners that are already there. I don’t have a specific vision of what that show would be to define, but I absolutely want shows that are consistent with the quality and that make noise. I think that’s where I want to live – it’s quality, but it’s loud. That’s what THE OFFICE is, that’s what TUDORS is, that’s what UGLY BETTY is.

iF: NBC is in last place, the network has great shows, but last season it was hard to get people over to see them. Why do you think it is, and two, what do you think you can do to get people to see the great shows you have on the new fall schedule?

SILVERMAN: I think quality shows suffer from being really consumed by an audience that is an early-adapter audience. They’re finding their shows in other outlets, or you’re competing heavily with their dinner plans, vacations and their consumption of other media. That being said, I think there is a massive American audience for those quality programs. And I think one of the things we can do, is get that message out there and unify our air, and show that NBC means quality. I don’t want you to say, “you’re in fourth place x, y, z,” I want you to say, “you’re the home of the quality shows.” I want to be put in a position to be lauded that we have an unbelievable slate of creative, quality programs.
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iF: I’m surprised most networks don’t try to schedule more scripted programming in the summer, will you try more of that in the future?

SILVERMAN: Be prepared for some original programming from us, and not only non-scripted. I agree. Why aren’t we launching scripted shows? We’ve ceded the original scripted shows to cable, where they’re doing phenomenal. Even our own sister network [USA] launched BURN NOTICE this summer and it did incredibly well. If we launched an original scripted show, it probably would have done well, if it was good, and I do think there’s an audience and we shouldn’t just assume the audience isn’t there. [Editor’s note: since this interview, Silverman has already greenlit 13 episodes of FEAR ITSELF, a re-envisioning of Showtime’s MASTERS OF HORROR from the same creative team, which will launch next summer].

iF: How can you do a CELEBRITY APPRENTICE where celebrities will agree to go on and get fired by Donald Trump?

SILVERMAN: It’s all for charity and it’s a lot easier for them to do a show where they have to eat worms or run around in a bathing suit.

iF: Is he going to be nicer?

SILVERMAN: No, it’s going to be within the content of work environment and I think a lot of talent and celebrities have business goals outside of what they do on their primary profession. Whether it’s fashion lines, make-up lines and salad dressings, I think we have an opportunity to draw on a piece of the celebrity world where they do want to prove themselves.

iF: If there was only one thing you could bring to the network, what would that be?

SILVERMAN: 40 Hours of THE OFFICE [laughs]. I don’t know what it is, but I would love us to have a breakout reality hit and love us to have a transformative drama and comedy hit as well. I think we have a great foundation. I think HEROES and THE OFFICE are tentpoles in their genres, and I think we can build on that and grow on that. And I think we have some great reality shows, THE SINGING BEE, AMERICA’S GOT TALENT and THE BIGGEST LOSER, but I think there is an opportunity to do one that can reach the 20 or 25 million viewer threshold, which we haven’t hit just yet.

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