VERNE GAY: The Kevin Reilly Legacy
Since NBC's not gonna give Kevin Reilly a decent send-off, I guess it's up to me to do the honors. (Thanks, guys.) Fired just about twenty minutes after he presented his 2007-8 schedule, Reilly has officially left the gig that ultimately slays all (almost all) who undertake it. Okay, he did walk out with a big severance check because he actually did sign a new contract just about twenty minutes BEFORE he presented the fall lineup.)
But here's the thing: I actually think Reilly was one of the better NBC Entertainment chiefs in a long, long time. Get beyond the recent problems - an abysmal primetime performance - and you have someone who brought a considerable amount of intelligence to the NBC lineup. (Yes, he's a Port Washington native and Chaminade grad, which may or may not have something to do with this.) He comes out of the tradition of
Brandon Stoddard and Grant Tinker - a true believer in network TV, maybe too much of a true believer, who imagined that given enough time and enough quality then viewers would follow. He didn't get nearly enough of the former, but was getting closer to the latter.
Consider: He put together the best NBC Thursday night line up in nearly two decades, while "The Office" - HIS "Office," by the way - is one of the great sitcoms in the network's history and - assuming Alec Baldwin doesn't entire lose his sanity which is a big assumption - "30 Rock" has a fighting chance at becoming anther one as well. Meanwhile, "Heroes" (inconsistent) and "Friday Night Lights" (consistent) are two of among the more engaging network hours of the last two seasons. Disasters? Of course - this is network TV - though I never really believed "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" was necessarily a Reilly misstep as much as a Sorkin one.
But his new lineup was underwhelming and my hunch is that when NBC put a toe into the upfront waters, the advertising piranhas bit it off. At that moment, Jeff Zucker made (yet another) call to Reilly successor Ben Silverman.
Anyway, I've put together a brief list of excuses for Kevin - the stuff over which he had little control and which effectively soiled his brief reign.
Feel free to add your own...
Bad timing: He arrives in May '04 on the heels of an all-time NBC lowpoint, with beasts like "Fear Factor"..."Father of the Pride"..."Hawaii".."Medical Investigation"...and (lest we forget) "Joey" stalking primetime and scaring away viewers. As a result, he needed the rest of whole of '04 and half of '05 just to clean up this mess. Meanwhile, NBC's must-see Thursday had turned into must-flee.
Two Dot Oh: This is another little thing over which Kevin had little to no control - "2.0," the code name for cost cutting and GE meddling. A corporate edict comes down that reality shows will henceforth fill the 8 p.m. lineup, while costs across the board are slashed. Reilly's then forced to fill a lineup with one hand tied behind his back.
Digital revolution: Yes, the same monster that's stalked newspapers is now stalking network TV. The long-established "network delivery system" - affiliates kept in line with monthly compensation checks - is fast-eroding as viewers (particularly the younger ones NBC courted) time-shift or effectively program their own network, through iTunes, or mobile platforms, or the networks' own dig playback modes. Meanwhile, there's half a dozen ways to measure audiences these days, all relating to when those audiences actually watch a show. How, one wonders, do you program to a moving target?
Higher expectations: Per numerous reports, GE is now actually considering a spin-off of NBC Universal, which means the books have to be "in order." You don't sell a company if its most visible component - primetime - is in fourth place. That means the pressure to perform is astronomical.
Maybe Reilly's lucky he got out when he did. By the way, there’s an opening at HBO, and in a previous life, Reilly did have a hand in “The Sopranos.”