Ben Silverman

According to several news reports today, though it is currently in fourth place among the broadcast networks, NBC has wrapped up its advance advertising sales this year with successful results.

And they didn't even throw an upfront!

Earlier this year, NBC executives announced that they would eschew the traditional TV time frame, not show pilots to advertisers at an upfront presentation, and would roll out new programming all year long.

"NBC's intention to announce a new sked in April—and then follow with a mix of small meetings and one big Gotham pitch—promises to disrupt the usual upfront selling season by giving the net a full month's head start on dealmaking," Variety reported back in February.

Four months later, that approach appears to be working.  read more »

There were no surprises at 30 Rock today as NBC announced the new host of Late Night when current host Conan O'Brien decamps to 11:30 PM sometime in 2009. As far back as February 2007, Bill Carter, The New York Times' veteran TV reporter and de facto historian of late night, had been reporting that Saturday Night Live alum Jimmy Fallon would be tapped to host the show. As reporters and film crews assembled on the 67th floor to take their lucite seats in a room with floor-to-ceiling windows dramatically framing a rainy, overcast day, Fallon's name was openly bandied about.  read more »

On Monday, April 28, in the subterranean auditorium of the New York Public Library, Vanity Fair hosted a cocktail hour and convocation of experts grandly titled “Redesigning the World: A Green Way to the Future.” And environmentally concerned New Yorkers Mary Richardson Kennedy (wife of Robert Kennedy Jr.<  read more »