McPherson Blasts NBC Again Over Reilly
By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/25/2007 1:15:00 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.
"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 "I just got here" 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 in B&C, calling NBC’s treatment of Reilly "disgusting" and saying Reilly "put his balls on the line better than anyone in the business, myself included."
