MediaPost Publications Zucker Weighs In On Leno, NBC's Future 03/19/2009

I love the quotes:


Wow. I mean, I guess that's one way to keep your job as boss, to say that you should expect failure and call it good.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

The good thing about low expectations is maybe Friday Night Lights and Chuck don't have to perform as well in order to earn further seasons.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

Assuming the quote wasn't taken out of context (which is often the case) Immediately fired!

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

This has been Zucker's strategy since day one. He is notorious in the industry for "failing upward" after acheiving mild success as producer on the Today show. When he took over as president of NBC Entertainment, NBC was the number one network period, especially in primetime. He maximized profit margins by shifting the schedule heavily toward reality TV, a decision that left the network without a bench to build from when heavy hitters like "Friends" left the airwaves. When General Electric bought an 80 percent stake in Vivendi Universal and merged it with NBC, he was promoted to president of NBC Television Group. During his tenure, NBC went from #1 to #4, falling behind Fox for the first time ever. For such a colossal failure, he got another promotion: CEO of NBC. Fortunes at the network continued to decline. For his continued failure, the bosses at GE forced Bob Wright (who had lead an incredibly successful 21 year tenure at NBC including the long stretch at #1 during the 90s) into early retirement and installed Zucker as President & CEO of NBC Universal. One of his first decisions was to fire NBC Entertainment prexy Kevin Reilly, who'd nurtured "The Office" through its troubled early season and brought the network hits like "My Name Is Earl," "Heroes," and "30 Rock", and replaced him with independent producer Ben Silverman who has seen the network drop to new lows. Reilly was promptly hired at #3 Fox for the same job. Silverman is currently pinning NBC's hopes for revival on a show called "Without Breasts There Is No Paradise."

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

I could do a better job running this network. Seriously. So could anyone on this board.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

At this year's up-fronts NBC will reveal their new slogan: "We Try Harder"

We may have to coin a new term, "The Zucker Principle", to explain something like this. "The Peter Principle" doesn't apply, because in that case the employee is actually successful at all levels prior to finally reaching his level of incompetence, where his career stalls. I can't recall another case of "failing upwards" like this. (Outside of politics, of course. )

Regards,

Joe

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

I thought it was hilarious that the promo on NBC for next week's Heroes essentially said, "Watch it this week! We promise it won't suck! We mean it this time!"

(Whether or not you think the show is sucking, it was one heck of an amusing promo)

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

When Jeff Zucker speaks, people giggle.


Good summary of the the Zucker/Silverman history at NBC, except for the last line. Silverman first tried to import "Without Breasts . . ." from Brazil or Argentina or where-ever nearly two years ago, but I haven't seen it in any coverage of the current development season, so I don't think he's "currently" pinning any hopes on it.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

Will he still have a job when it falls below the CW?

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

Happy to be corrected on that one. He'll probably replace Jeffrey Immelt as CEO of G.E.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

Thats what irks me. Is their are some shows on the CW that are better than Kath & Kim. Yet lose to that show weekly.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

The CW is a marginal network that isn't even available in many cities and isn't carried on some cable systems. Hardly surprising that it gets trounced in the ratings by the original "big three" and Fox, all of which established themselves before the cable/satellite revolution really took off. Even the Hollywood union contracts treat the CW (as they did UPN and The WB when they were still separate networks) differently than "The Big Four". I don't remember all the details, but I know in the SAG and WGA MBAs prior to the last go-round, The WB and UPN were in either the 2nd or 3rd tier, down with first-run syndication or maybe basic cable when it came to minimums, residuals and other items.

NBC is simply available to a larger universe of eyeballs, and therefore even its crappy shows are going to be seen by more people than will see most CW shows. (OTOH, because they are available to a bigger audience, NBC shows have to draw a larger minimun audience to stay on the air, which is why the few decent shows they attempt are often cancelled. Ratings that would make a show an unqualified success on The CW - or the Food Network - will get you dumped in a heartbeat on NBC, ABC or CBS. Even with their declining market share they still require big numbers - even more so with ad revenues down.)

Regards,

Joe

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

I'd take "Gossip Girl" (CW) over a majority of the crap on NBC... add "Reaper" to that as well. Outside of "Chuck" and "30 Rock" NBC has been pretty barren, and when they switch to Leno at 9 every night in June, even more so.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

And what do they do if Leno fails, give the 10 PM time slot back to the affiliates?

Seriously, he must have incriminating pictures of the entire board of directors of GE. That's the only thing keeping him around.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

Hmmm... Let's see.

1) The president seems to want to do a primetime address to the nation pretty much every week, which is pissing off viewers and disrupting schedules on all the major networks.

2) NBC has no primtime programming and no viewers.

I think I see a solution - why doesn't NBC just give the president a weekly series? He gets the airtime, they get an audience, ABC, CBS and Fox can run talent shows, dancing contests and re-enactments of The Lord of the Flies to their hearts' content. Everybody wins!

Regards,

Joe

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

I must be the only one watching NBC prime time this season: Friday Night Lights, Kings, Celebrity Apprentice, Knight Rider, Crusoe... probably watched more on NBC than ABC or CBS.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

Considering "Crusoe" and "Knight Rider" were canned; and "Kings" had the lowest ratings of any premiere, I'd say you're the only one. They only wish you were a neilson home.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

Ever since cable TV began and the internet took off, we've known that eventually there would be a point where the traditional network TV model proved unsustainable. Is this it, or is it still a ways to go? Either way, at this rate NBC will be the first domino to collapse.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

I thought Crusoe was supposed to be a limited-run series.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

Imagine a TV version of the Mendoza Line -- you must broadcast a minimum amount of decent programming in order to sustain the traditional network model, just as you must maintain a certain level of stats in order to maintain a major league baseball career. NBC may be crap-shoveling itself into the dustbin of history.

Call it the "Zucker Line."

PS Remember also that NBC runs "Syfy." Will the unintentional comedy never cease?

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

Looks like NBC has another dud on their hands with Parks & Recreation. Ben Silverman: "All of the research we do around initial rough cuts is negative. If you had seen the initial research on all of ours and our competitors' successful shows, it tends to be like that."

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

According to Variety, NBC Universal's profits plunged 45 percent, even while GE's overall profits were up one percent:

NBC Universal profits down 45%

Parent company GE gains 1% to close at $12.39

By DADE HAYES

Elton John's Rocket Pictures hopes to make the first Jane Austen adaptation to which men will drag their girlfriends.

Will Clark is set to direct "Pride and Predator," which veers from the traditional period costume drama when an alien crash lands and begins to butcher the mannered protags, who suddenly have more than marriage and inheritance to worry about.

Shooting will begin in London later this year. John exec produces, and his Rocket partners Steve Hamilton Shaw and David Furnish are producing.

NBC Universal reported a quarterly operating profit plunge of 45% even as parent GE was posting better-than-expected results Friday and buoying Wall Street's spirits.

GE shares gained 1% to close at $12.39 after the massive conglom reported net income of $2.74 billion, down 36% from $4.3 billion in the year-ago period. That was still better than most analysts expected from the battered company, whose key GE Capital unit has been a cancer over the past several months. The finance unit's profits slumped 58% to $1.12 billion.

Revenue dropped 9% to $38.4 billion.

GE chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt said in a statement, "While cable continued to deliver double-digit growth, NBC Universal had a tougher performance overall due to a soft advertising market and fewer major DVD releases compared to a year ago."

NBCU topper Jeff Zucker blamed the profit dip on several factors, contending it had "nothing to do with the strength of our operations." Zucker said profits would have fallen 15%, in line with forecasts, without one-time charges.

How does he keep his job?

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

This is morbidly funny.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

what? i'm watching either..

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

I think MILF Island is still a viable property.

This is all reading like a 30 Rock episode, which is both funny and sad at the same time.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

It's already on TV Land under the name 'The Cougar'.

Re: NBC Gives up "We'll Never be #1"

While I do not watch much on NBC but, I do watch the Weather Channel that NBC bought last summer. I have noticed that it has gone down in programming quality since then. I think they spend more time advertising their own programming and telling previews of whats coming up than they do talking about the weather.

I had it on the other day due to severe weather in the area and they showed this lady covering tornado damage. Each time they covered the story through out the day, she stood in the same house debris from 7:00am until over 10:00 at night. They didn't even move the camera to show any other damage in the area.

I would say that it is a sorry set of circumstances when someone would rather watch the Weather Channel than NBC's prime time shows. And on top of that is unhappy with the Weather Channel programming.

According to the Los Angeles Times, NBC network president Ben Silverman is the latest to fall on his sword for Jeff Zucker:

NBC shakes up entertainment team: Jeff Gaspin up, Ben Silverman out

Gaspin will oversee all of NBC Universal's TV properties, including the troubled NBC television production studio. Silverman will launch a new company with Barry Diller.

By Meg James

9:51 AM PDT, July 27, 2009

NBC Universal this morning shook up its floundering network entertainment team once again, consolidating its sprawling television empire into a single group and installing a no-nonsense veteran to try to clean up the mess.

Jeff Gaspin, a low-key executive who has been overseeing NBC Universal's successful cable television group, assumed management of all of the company's television properties including its problem-plagued division: NBC and its television production studio.

As part of the moves, NBC's self-proclaimed "rock star" entertainment chief, Ben Silverman, is exiting NBC to form a new company with Barry Diller's Interactive Corp. Although NBC positioned Silverman's departure as his decision to leave, it was no secret that NBC Universal President and Chief Executive Jeff Zucker was increasingly concerned that NBC was moving even further adrift after four years of management turmoil, expensive shows that quickly flamed out and broader problems of tumbling ratings and plummeting profits.

Just two months before the critical launch of Jay Leno into prime time, Zucker realized that he had to make a change and could no longer ignore NBC's festering management problems. Silverman had not demonstrated the leadership or programming Midas touch that Zucker had expected when he hired him two years ago in another dramatic shakeup. Instead of restoring the peacock to glory, NBC has dug itself into a deeper hole.

Why isn't it a surprise that yet another Zucker decision has dug NBC "into a deeper whole"? When will Jeffrey R. Immelt realize that Zucker is ultimately responsible for "NBC's festering management problems", which have lasted longer than the careers of all NBC executives but Zucker?

• Fox execs show up at the CTA and throw some GREAT barbs NBC's way.. some hilarious stuff here..
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• http://www.tvsquad.com/2009/08/06/more-from-fox-execs-futurama-glee-dollhouse-but-no-more-ki/
  
  
   

Most of the shows I love on NBC were commissioned under Reilly's tenure at the network. NBC was just starting to show signs of life again when Zucker canned him in favor of Silverman.