Graboff's ascent

No doubt about it, Marc Graboff is a big winner in the shuffle unveiled today at NBC. Sure, he already had a big job and plenty of responsibility, and perhaps most importantly he's long had the consiglieri-level trust of NBC Universal boss Jeff Zucker, but still, there's something about the co-chairman title that he now shares with Ben Silverman that has a certain ring to it. It solidifies his role at the Peacock as being much more than a numbers and bottom-line guy, even though the NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal TV Studio arms already had reported into him. Indeed, NBC U brass are saying they're aiming for a Bob Daly/Terry Semel-esque partnership, as Variety's Joe Adalian reports in today's now-it's-really-official version of the story.

Graboff, previously NBC West Coast president, is a lawyer by training. He's known as a tough negotiator, which sometimes grates on creative types (and their agents), but he's also respected as a straight shooter. He joined NBC in November 2000 as executive veep, NBC West Coast, from CBS, where he was a biz affairs maven. Graboff expanded his domain following the NBC-Universal merger in 2004, and was most recently upped to prexy, NBC West Coast in January 2006.