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Ben Silverman at the New York TV Fest: ‘I Am the Swordfish’

Edwin Cohen’s The rain reveals the hidden names of flowers (2008).

NBC wunderkind (and Vulture hero) Ben Silverman hasn’t had it easy lately — amid reports of his alleged after-hours partying, monthlong absences from work, and a possible imminent departure from the network if the fall lineup ends up a stinker, a guy can start to feel like “the Paris Hilton of NBC,” he told an audience during a panel discussion at the New York Television Festival yesterday. But then, an ebullient Silverman put our mind at ease, gushing about how great his gig as co-chairman is: “I am so committed to this job.” Whew! With that out of the way, we could better focus on the other crazy things he was saying, including a renewed pledge to find new uses for the underutilized NBC chimes and awesome statements like, “[NBC show] The Philanthropist is going to redefine the procedural, but it’s called that because I want people to be philanthropic.” And, most brilliantly, a long fishing metaphor about NBC’s innovation that we lost track of halfway through — which means we can’t be 100 percent sure if he was serious when he said, “I am the swordfish that took the boat across the Pacific.”

Ben Silverman at the New York TV Fest: ‘I Am the Swordfish’