We’re still grappling with this morning’s news that NBC wunderkind (and Vulture hero) Ben Silverman is leaving the Peacock to start his own company. But for right now, we turn our attention to Jeff Gaspin, Silverman’s successor as the head of the network’s entertainment division. Who is this mysterious man? From his appearance alone, we can already tell that he probably will not be as much fun to write about as Ben (look at those dull, barely there eyebrows!). But why else do we think he might be boring?
Well, first, he’s not the hip swinging bachelor that Silverman is: Gaspin is married with three kids. He doesn’t seem anywhere near as willing to embarrass himself, either — this December Forbes profile, which says he’s 47, opens with an anecdote about how he was too shy to introduce his 10-year-old son to a star of Burn Notice when they spotted him out in public.
But even more damning is the fact that he seems to be incredibly hardworking and wildly successful in everything he does. In his current position, Gaspin, originally from Queens, oversees NBC Universal’s cable properties (USA, Bravo, Oxygen and Sci Fi), whose profits dwarf those of the company’s broadcast side. In the nineties, while working at VH1, he created Behind the Music, doubled that network’s ratings, and saw profits increase by 500 percent. In 2001, he became the head of NBC’s reality division, helping to create shows like The Biggest Loser and The Apprentice. In 2003, he was promoted as the acting president of Bravo, where he greenlit Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and doubled profits there. None of this sounds very Silvermanian!
Worst of all, though, is that despite our best efforts this morning, we’ve been unable to track down a single photo of him skiing, a YouTube video of him singing topless, or any published evidence that he’s ever rented a white tiger for a house party. So, nope, he’s certainly no Ben Silverman, that much is clear.
