Business

NBC SILVER BULLET

NBC Universal is in talks to extend chief programmer Ben Silverman’s contract for at least another year, The Post has learned.

Silverman has told friends that he is keen to stay at the network, and now that he’s improved the entertainment unit’s earnings, NBCU boss Jeff Zucker is said to be leaning toward giving him another 12 months to work with the programming slate, said sources close to both men.

Though the network has had a difficult year, sources say there are many reasons why Silverman’s contract, which expires in June, will likely be extended. Chief among them is that he took over the programming job during last year’s writer’s strike.

Sources also pointed to Silverman’s recent appointment to the board of NBC’s $250 million Peacock fund and the fact that he survived the entertainment unit’s recent bloodletting – which cleaned out virtually every programming exec at the network to make room for Silverman’s own team.

“Jeff wants to give Ben a chance to work with his own team in a normalized environment,” said an NBC source.

An NBC source said Zucker thinks Silverman is “the best dealmaker in town,” and that he “brings the show and the business together better than anybody.”

But perhaps the biggest reason Silverman is likely to stay at NBC is because sources say Zucker sees a lot of himself in Silverman.

Zucker’s best asset has always been his ability to keep the bosses at parent company General Electric happy, and while the creative community was appalled by Silverman’s “We’re managing for margins not for ratings” comment, sources said GE officials loved it.

GE is known for being a bottom-line oriented company, and for ensuring that Wall Street sees that NBCU’s growth rate is at the same double-digit levels as other GE units.

That explains why much of NBCU’s discussion about this week’s deal to keep “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno has been framed around cost-savings.

What’s more, sources said Zucker’s resolve to keep Silverman – who’s been called an absentee programmer and a frequent partier – appears to get stronger as more people call for his ouster.

“When Jeff first went out to [Los Angeles] he didn’t have a lot of fans, either,” said one former NBC executive. “The way he sees it, he’s not going to let Hollywood tell him what to do with his network.”

In addition, sources said it wouldn’t look good for Zucker to ax Silverman just a year after he pushed out former chief programmer Kevin Reilly to make room for Silverman.

Still, Zucker is giving Silverman a much smaller canvas to work with after the failures this fall of “Knight Rider,” “My Own Worst Enemy” and others.

The Leno deal eliminates the need for Silverman to program at 10 p.m., which used to be seen as the network’s most important time slot during the programming reigns of Brandon Tartikoff and Don Ohlmeyer.

Two years ago, NBC committed to airing mostly reality shows at 8 p.m.

Those moves, coupled with NBC’s returning shows, leaves Silverman with only a few primetime hours per week to develop expensive scripted programming.

peter.lauria@nypost.com