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View Full Version : All Time Worst Television Network/Channel Executives


TMC
02-22-2009, 03:51 AM
It could either be from the past or present, cable or broadcast. Which major TV executive was the most incompetent at the job, and did the most damage to their respective network's reputation and/or progress (for example, Fred Silverman during his time at NBC in the late 1970s-early 1980s)?

megamanj2004
02-22-2009, 03:51 PM
Def. Ben Silverman and Jeff Zucker at their craptastic job their doing running NBC to the ratings abyss from the mid 2000s-to now.

Game Show Geeks called Fred Silverman the Game Show-Hater for killing off a lot of game shows blocks.

He killed CBS's GS Block in the late '60s (the end of Password, To tell the Truth (their last GS of the late '60s), What's My Line?, and I've a Got a Secret. He screwed with a lot of ABC GS's in the '70s twice. He killed off Password, Split Second, Blanket Blanks, The Money Maze, and The Big Showdown and the revival of You Don't Say! in 1975. He also killed two other GS's to expand for soap operas under his watch at ABC. But luckily for him, the primetime shows at ABC pulled that network to #1 by 1977 or so.

He also was the reason why NBC was in last place left and right in the late '70s and early '80s in both daytime and primetime. He was also responsible for the dark day w/ NBC GS's, known to GS Fans as the dark day of June 20th, 1980 when 3 NBC GS's was axed. Despite another Gs block that happened later on in 1980, NBC was still getting battered in daytime ratings not just w/ GS's but their soaps, too were suffering in the ratings.

megamanj2004
02-22-2009, 03:58 PM
If you wanna count company channel execs and/or presidents then:

I'd also count in Sumner Redstone and Phillipe Dauman, aka head-honchos of Viacom. It was b/c of their meddling and pressuring other excs running the channles they own (i.e. MTV, BET, VH1, TV Land, etc.) to make them their money that we see all those crappy reality shows on those channels, plus the whole You Tube Invasion, too.