Ben Silverman has been producing TV since he was 30. Twenty-six years later, the man does not lack for pep. He’s naturally a vibes guy, though the multiple double lattes probably help. On a Monday in late August, Silverman met The Hollywood Reporter at a coffeehouse opposite Manhattan’s Bryant Park to check in on Propagate Content — Silverman’s and his former assistant Howard T. Owens’ production company — but instead golf took over the chat.
The Propagate chairman and co-CEO carries an 8.1 handicap and memberships at the ultra-exclusive Riviera and Hillcrest country clubs. As of late, Silverman’s hobby has informed his profession: Propagate has revived the Skins Game at Amazon, is developing an untitled Anthony Kim documentary and will premiere season two of the scripted Owen Wilson golf comedy Stick on Apple TV on Nov. 4. Meyer Silverman (a plus-2 handicap), Ben’s son and the top high school freshman earlier this month in the Colorado Class 3A Boys Golf State Championships, has already eclipsed Dad’s golf game.
It’s kind of exactly how Ben built on his own parents’ creative careers. His father, Stanley Silverman, is a composer who has arranged music for Sting and Paul Simon; his mother, Mary (Delson) Silverman,was an opera singer, and his stepmother a violinist. “I kind of grew up in the arts but always seeing that it was a tough life,” Silverman recalls. “I had maggots in my cereal growing up. My dad, when he got divorced from my stepmom, had to move in with me and my mom.”
An artist’s upbringing birthed a builder of others’ visions. As the youngest-ever division head at William Morris, Silverman saw the opportunity to repackage overseas formats for U.S. audiences. “That was a quiet business that had a couple of hustling, Willy Loman-type players in it — but otherwise was not a real business,” Silverman says. “I really led the charge in that.”
From London, Silverman adapted Queer as Folk for Showtime and later Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? for ABC. Millionaire handed Silverman his Hollywood “I made it” moment. Massive TV ratings brought in phone calls from Disney chief Michael Eisner — “Thanks! What else you got?” — and NBC CEO Bob Wright: “Why didn’t I get Millionaire?” (He passed on it but soon would buy The Weakest Link from Silverman.) “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, my life just changed,’ ” Silverman recounts.
With the backing of Barry Diller, a 29-year-old Silverman left the agency to start Reveille Productions, which brought America The Office and Silverman his “I’ve really made it” moment. “My dad and I are sitting together on an airline… and 95 percent of the plane had chosen to watch The Office,” Silverman says. “The entire plane was laughing.”
“’Oh my gosh,’” he recalls thinking. “’My family’s life just changed.’”
At 36, Silverman sold Reveille to the Murdochs for $125 million (who would flip it for seven times that, he says) and became co-chair of NBC Entertainment in 2007. It was the first job Silverman had that didn’t really suit him. The problem was the suit. He lasted two years.
“I walked in [Jeff Zucker’s] office and said, “Jeff, this job gives me a stomachache. I do not like it. I feel like a sports car in a parking lot of Tauruses. I don’t enjoy this,”’ Silverman remembers. “’I feel like I’m managing up and managing down without getting to pursue the things I care about. I cannot do this anymore.’”
He and Diller next launched Electus, which is now Propagate. Silverman says he won’t join the corporate ranks again. “I get the calls every couple of years, and I’m like, ‘Wait, that sounds like a job. I don’t want a job!’” Silverman says.
“I just love being in culture,” he adds.
And his own banner now has an undeniably large portfolio of projects — Netflix’s Untold, the CNN doc I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Amazon’s Jerry West: The Logo, Food Network’s Chopped and scripted fare like The Paper (Peacock) and the upcoming Protective Custody (Apple TV) comedy series starring Ben Stiller and Benicio Del Toro — but Propagate is still seeking its first true society-shaker.
That could come as early as November, when its Sam Bankman-Fried doc series The Boy Who Stole Billions? premieres on Amazon. Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM, approvingly screened it a few weeks ago.
Hopkins credits Silverman’s “diverse set of relationships” and the “ability to work across a number of dimensions and genres” for his success.
“And then he delivers,” Hopkins adds. “We’re a hit-driven business — not everything that every producer does is going to knock it out of the park — but [Silverman has] a really good track record.”
Also in the Propagate pipeline is an untitled Mookie Betts scripted comedy from Ramy Youssef and Josh Rabinowitz in development for Apple TV, with an Entourage-like setup for the Dodgers’ star shortstop. (Betts will not personally play himself in the Vincent Chase-role.) The firm is additionally developing a scripted series with Jenny Bicks (Sex and the City) and another with Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman; Silverman is in negotiations with Netflix for the latter.
For Fox’s Tuesday night hit Best Medicine, an American take on ITV hit Doc Martin, Silverman returned to his roots as an importer of culture. It was wise to pitch it to the British CEO of an American media company.
“We had a lunch where we talked about Doc Martin and our shared passion for the series and the possibility of Liz [Meriwether] being involved,” Wade says. “We were both huge fans of the original. Doc Martin was so comedic, and Martin Clunes was known for sitcoms when it launched, and I think Ben’s understanding of really why that show worked helped me and Michael (Thorn, Fox network president) make the decision to buy it.”
Josh Charles, who plays the Doc Martin (Clunes) role here, says Silverman charmed the Sports Night and The Good Wife star aboard with one deep pull outside of the TV ecosystem.
“When we first spoke on the phone about Best Medicine and were discussing the overall tone of the show, he mentioned an older, more-obscure film I love called Local Hero,” Charles tells THR, referencing the 1983 British comedy-drama written and directed by Bill Forsyth. “I was surprised he knew of it and I thought it was a perfect example of what the tone of the show could be, and it was in that moment I knew I wanted to be part of it.”
Charles adds, “That’s good producing as far as I’m concerned.”
This story appeared in the Oct. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.