Tonight on Conversations with Michael Eisner, the business of entertainment in the city of angels. The many faces of a rock and roll demon.
Gene Simmons is a phenomenon. The businessman, the promoter, and the advertising executive, the music internet executive, he's surprising.
Our venture does the worldwide branding marketing for the IndyCar series. We're about to be hired by the NHL. The country of Turks and Caicos is about to hire us to do their branding marketing.
NBC Entertainment co-chairman, Ben Silverman. Ben Silverman is a young executive. He's running NBC programming in an environment completely different than when I ran programming for ABC. He is in a somewhat decaying industry in broadcast television with many, many competitors and too few great writers and too few great ideas.
The Office was a show that I fell in love with and, you know, thought it was just a brilliant piece of entertainment and was arrested by what was going on in the screen and this kind of faux documentary.
And Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa. Mayor Villaraigosa is electric. He's really taken the city by storm. He cares about the environment. He understands the education problem. He cares about the diversity of the city.
He was a rising star of the Latino community until he had a little bit of a marital problem and now he's become a tabloid mayor.
Are you prepared for them following you around like they follow all celebrities?
I asked for this job and I'm very honored to be the mayor of this town.
Ben Silverman is running 100-yard dash morning and night. He has a pretty good track record of smelling out shows that have been at least successful outside the United States and adapting them for broadcast in the United States. He discovered and adapted The Office for NBC.
Give me one good reason why I shouldn't fire you right here on the spot over those sales numbers. Ugly Betty for ABC. I work here. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and The Biggest Loser. Ready? Get set. Go!
So, he knows what he's doing. Ben Silverman is now charged with running NBC programming. Find a take NBC from last place to first place. I did that in the '70s at ABC. I know what he's up against and it's kind of fun. So, it's even harder for him than it was in my day, but it is the same industry. He has the same problem that all young executives that have had that job from Irving Thalberg in the movies to Barry Diller to Brandon Tartikoff to Ben Silverman.
I really appreciate you coming on because of any interview I've done, this is the most interesting for me because I 30 years ago I had a similar job at ABC. You being responsible for all of programming for the NBC Television Network in a time of real change is interesting. And you've been doing it now what, 6 months?
Uh, a little less. Started in June.
You know what? It's a massive gig, but I'm totally into it. I love it and the power of a network or a real network.
The power and everybody kissing your ass.
Uh, you know what? They all day long. Well, it's the janitor, doctor, the doorman, parking lot.
More scripts pitched, more ideas.
Oh, yeah. Good. Constantly. Well, that part's great, but I always kind of anticipated that being part of, you know, one of the four networks. But on the workload thing, it's enormous. I mean, you every night we're on whether you show up to the office or not.
The most difficult job I ever had. There was no moment that you had a rest.
The competition that exists today for the attention of our audience and consumer, well, I think it's separated into demographic patches, but also is just so much vying for them in terms of, you know, forget just online but even within the television landscape, you're in a 50/50 world just when you divide cable and broadcast. So, already I'm after one half the audience and then there are these new networks and there are so many outlets competing on top of the television for them. So, it's definitely interesting.
You come from a background where your parents were in the business. Your mother was in the industry, your father is in the music industry. So, you've always wanted to do this?
Did you know you were going to be like a program selector person?
You know, that was I always wanted to be a person who would influence the outcome because having the artist father and having the executive mother, I liked her rhythms a lot more than his rhythms in terms of how they controlled their own job opportunity. You know, the artist was definitely on the hook to the executive most of the time and mom definitely paid for more of college than dad.
You were considered one of the really great young agents. I mean, I all the agents were telling me, 'Get this guy. This guy is really on fire. He works 23 hours a day.'
Well, I think, you know, part of that was actually getting closer to the talent. I think identifying and having the opportunity within the agency world to be primary relationship with the talent and you know, directly relate to the talent but also I went after it in London and New York kind of further afield where it really was an entrepreneurial platform and William Morris kind of gave me this great opportunity to reach out to anybody in any business in New York and London and develop really unique relationships.
So, your first big hit where people started to recognize that Ben Silverman was a person to watch was when you went to London and started to smell out oh, hey, there's a show called Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Hey, there's a show called The Office. Hey, there's a show called, you know, Survivor or whatever.
Totally. There was a period where if it had an accent, I was usually involved in its translation into America.
The first one. Although, in my day, All in the Family had come from
Absolutely. Normally, All in the Family, um Steptoe and Son, which became Sanford and Son, there was a number of and Three's Company, you know, was also based on Man About the House. All of those did come from the UK.
So, you started off finding the reality shows, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, but then you moved into seeing a show like The Office had great potential. You did that really alone. That was you, right?
Yeah. Well, I think that in analyzing the market, I tried to sell a lot of scripted shows, and we did formats of shows like Cracker, like Queer as Folk, which went on Showtime and was pretty successful as a format, but I would watch a lot of times is I would identify the scripted shows, they really would get lost in translation. And The Office was a show that I fell in love with and, you know, thought it was just a brilliant piece of entertainment. I watched it on vacation and came across it while changing the channels, and was arrested by what was going on in the screen and its kind of faux documentary, and the strange David Brent played by Ricky Gervais, and, you know, was able to find somebody in Greg Daniels who could just bring it to life, understood what was so fantastic and honest and raw and real about it in the UK, but bring it into a totally American environment and its own voice, and then the wonderful cast that, you know, kind of defines that show and just has taken it to such unbelievable levels.
And now, Michael the Magic will attempt to escape from extreme bondage. Can he do it? I don't see how he can.
The big question I have is basically about creativity. You made enormous strides in bringing shows in from England. A lot of people have, you know, borrowed stuff done around the world, but the success of NBC and any network is going to be homegrown creativity. Are you concentrating on that, or are you still waiting for that gift from abroad?
Well, I think definitely our we're looking for the best ideas wherever they come from. And we have such great talent that are coming into the network right now. We're working with Norman Lear, who hasn't worked in a primetime network television show in a while and doing a great original idea of his and a younger writer named Nina Colman. We're doing stuff with Brett Ratner, who's directing a great piece of original material based on a New York cop and a book he wrote.
All you really need, this is my experience in my career, is one office every year. Not two, not six, just one hit in October, maybe a little hit in the spring, another hit the following October, and you become number one in 3 years.
From your mouth. I'll take it in small doses, but I really do want us to be number one, and I want to continue the great association we have with quality, which is the most fun part about NBC.
So, you're running late night as well, you are, right?
So, how are you going to handle that situation where NBC has announced that Jay Leno is retiring in 2009 and Conan O'Brien is taking over. We all know that Jay Leno does not want to leave in 2009, whether you admit it or not, we all know it. So, this seems like a difficult business challenge for you.
I think it's probably the most, you know, difficult one we face because I think that Jay is a superstar and an asset that we want part of NBC forever. And he's unbelievable in his time period, and we want him part of the network, and Conan is a brilliant talent and a comedic voice, and we want him
But, the history has been when Jack Paar went from late night to primetime, when Johnny mean, went from late night to prime time. Didn't work. These guys work at 11:30. So, if you're thinking about moving Jay Leno to prime time to make room for Conan O'Brien, that runs a lot of risk, doesn't it?
There are risks, and there are options that go beyond just prime time. And I think what's great about being part of
Cuz one of your competitors would probably love to have one of the two.
I'm sure that our competitors would smell that pretty well.
And I think the bottom line for us is how do we keep both of these guys happy and on our network?
When does that happen? When do you make that decision?
Right now. We books have been written about this.
