Ben Silverman buys his first show for NBC.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Wow: NBC's new entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman is moving fast. Variety reports that his first move is to acquire the rights to the Colombian telenovela Sin tetas no hay paraiso ("Without Breasts There Is No Paradise").

The original told the story of a young woman determined to escape poverty through big kaboombas. She becomes a prostitute and finds herself entangled with a drug dealer. Caliente!

In Colombia—where sexism is waning—there were protests about the series' depiction of women. 

You might recall that some expressed doubts  about Silverman's intentions when he took the job at NBC. He cited Brandon Tartikoff and Norman Lear as his role models and vowed that NBC would be about quality programming. Apparently he assumed that everyone knew about the tata exception.

Silverman cited "Without Breasts" as an example of synergy, that magical word, since NBC-Uni will produce the programs in-house, creating English- and Spanish-language versions. In other words, Silverman plans to squeeze every last drop from this luscious pair.

"I scour the world for the best ideas and for the game-changing hit shows and 'Sin Tetas' is one of those shows," said Silverman, whose success (Ugly Betty, The Office) has mostly come from remakes of foreign shows. God knows what high-end material he'll come up with when he starts scouring countries where female circumcision is practiced. (link)

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Day of the locust: If you're sure that your most recent meal is safely digested, consider this bit of information from the Mediaweek Web site: