NBC may be trying to claw its way out of the prime-time TV ratings cellar, but that’s not stopping the network’s party-hearty new savior, Ben Silverman, from praising himself and bashing the top dogs at rivals ABC and FOX.
In a sensational Esquire interview that hits newsstands Nov. 17, an unfiltered Silverman, NBC Entertainment’s co-chairman, disses ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson and Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly as “D-girls” – a derogatory TV industry term for cute young development executives with little power.
“Traditionally, development executives rise through a specific subsection of the TV business – prime-time, network, scripted programming. They’re basically D-girls. That’s what Steve McPherson is, that’s what Kevin Reilly is. That’s bad vernacular, but they’re all D-girls,” he told the mag.
Reps for McPherson and Reilly didn’t return requests for comment.
By contrast, Silverman, who the night before this year’s Emmys hosted a party in the Hollywood Hills featuring bikini-clad dancers, the Hilton sisters and a white caged tiger, says of himself: “The industry hasn’t seen an executive like me in a long time.”
Silverman – who Esquire says prides himself as an outsider – catapulted to the top of NBC after producing hits like “The Office” and “Ugly Betty” for NBC and ABC, respectively, and selling the rights to foreign shows like “Survivor” and “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” to American networks.
He is a New York native who roots for the Yankees and Red Sox and likens himself to Boston’s young general manger Theo Epstein, whom he refers to as “the other luckiest young Jew in America.”
He acknowledged that his relationship with Reilly – who was ousted as the head of NBC by NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker to make room for him and entertainment co-chair Marc Graboff – has soured in the wake of the shake-up.
“We were friends, but he’s been shockingly lacking in grace,” he said of Reilly, rejecting the suggestion that he stole his job, and noting he’s specifically wanted the NBC job since he was 10 years-old.
He is also critical of some of Reilly’s programming decisions while at NBC.
“The more I’m inside it, the more I recognize things could have been done better. Like, how can you order a ‘Studio 60′ and a ’30 Rock’?” he said.
“How could you ever order two shows about the same subject and put numbers in their titles? That’s so transparently flawed to me . . .I would have never done that.”
He also called McPherson, Reilly’s best friend and fraternity brother at Cornell, a “moron,” and a “sad man,” whom he had to convince to take “Ugly Betty.”
McPherson has been critical of Silverman’s role in the regime change at NBC and his decision to add controversial actor Isiaiah Washington to NBC’s “Bionic Woman” after the actor was booted from ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” for making a anti-gay slur.
“It probably makes him [McPherson] nuts that this kid who’s five years younger than him is producing hit shows and then goes and gets his job in an end run,” Silverman said. brian.garrity@nypost.com