McPherson and NBC Exchange Verbal Blows Over Reilly
By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/25/2007 9:02:00 PM
ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson blasted NBC once again in the wake of the ouster of Kevin Reilly, a close friend who since joined Fox
Having read the transcript from NBC’s press tour session last Monday in which NBC execs said Reilly was never fired, McPherson said the media let NBC execs off the hook over both the Reilly situation as well as NBC’s hire of formey Grey’s Anatomy star Isaiah Washington.
"When someone stabs your best friend in the back, you don’t buy it," McPherson said.
He specifically took issue with NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman’s saying he was too new on the job to comment when asked if he thought it was good corporate policy to fire Reilly right after inking him to a new deal.
"The idea you would be able to say ‘I just got here?’ Be a man," McPherson said. "He didn’t know what went on? Was he living in a cave?"
McPherson’s rabid defense of Reilly is no surprise, and not the first time it has happened since NBC’s executive makeover. Following Reilly’s ouster, McPherson spouted off to B&C
While NBC declined to comment officially, one network insider was miffed at McPherson’s Wednesday tirade over how it handled the questions about whether or not Reilly was fired. Last week co-chairman Marc Graboff went to great lengths to avoid saying Reilly had technically been fired, a stance that drew laughs from the assembled journalists.
"He says he is protecting his good buddy Kevin, but what would he have liked [Graboff] to say?" says the insider, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "’Yes, we canned his best friend’s ass and traded up to Ben Silverman?’ Of course we are not going to say that."
The insider also noted it was "strange" McPherson went after Silverman personally after Silverman’s Ugly Betty snagged ABC 11 Emmy nominations.
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