Propagate’s Ben Silverman Says Execs Today Fear Taking Risks Without a Big Star, Big IP and Rely on ‘Derivative Ideas’

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Office With a View: the production company’s co-CEO and former head of NBC also details status on L.A. tax incentives, unscripted momentum and sitcoms

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Ben Silverman (Propagate/TheWrap)

A decade into running Propagate Content, TV producer Ben Silverman, who has been behind hits like “The Office” and “Jane the Virgin,” is keenly aware of executives’ aversion to risks when greenlighting new projects, especially after his two-year stint as NBC’s co-chairman.

“There’s just so much fear among so many executives about taking risk and doing anything that just doesn’t have a massive star or a massive IP,” Silverman told TheWrap for this week’s Office with a View. “Talent is still just such a big driver of so much of what is selling, and then, as as always, high quality writers on the scripted side and high quality IP (intellectual property) on the non-scripted side.”

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