Jeff Zucker doesn't regret 10 o'clock Leno, but blames himself for the Conan fiasco - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 07-02-2011, 03:53 AM

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...e-katie-206881

Says the former NBC boss, who's now running Katie Couric's new show: "I regret that we had to make the decisions. There were no winners out of that. A lot of people got hurt in that process. And that was incredibly unfortunate."

TV Knowledge Fan · 07-10-2011, 01:47 AM

...among them, passing himself off as a network programmer when he really wasn't one. He took a first-rate network and turned it into a fifth-rate one. And the more misjudgement and mistakes in prime-time he caused, the higher he was promoted within the company, because he made money for the network and its corporate parent, General Electric. The moment NBC stopped being a "cash cow", Zucker became a liability.

And one of those mistakes was moving Jay Leno to 10pm(et), Monday through Friday. He realized too late that Jay was still popular at 11:35, and wasn't quite ready to let Conan take over "THE TONIGHT SHOW". But, as usual, he made the mistake of making a decision he hadn't quite thought out {"EMERIL"? "COUPLING"?}, years before, and promised Conan he'd get that 11:35 time period, or he'd lose him to another network. And in the end, he did. And now that Jay's been back at 11:35 for over a year, his ratings aren't what they used to be....I wonder who gets to replace him?

And the biggest loser (without all the weight) was Jeff Zucker. Comcast wouldn't buy their majority interest in NBC/Universal unless he was "out" of the company for good. That was probably the best decision they made in the past 10 years....which is about as long as Zucker was in charge.

07-02-2011, 03:53 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 126,739	Jeff Zucker doesn't regret 10 o'clock Leno, but blames himself for the Conan fiasco http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...e-katie-206881 Says the former NBC boss, who's now running Katie Couric's new show: "I regret that we had to make the decisions. There were no winners out of that. A lot of people got hurt in that process. And that was incredibly unfortunate."

07-10-2011, 01:47 AM	#2
TV Knowledge Fan Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 29, 2006 Location: Long Branch, N.J. Posts: 2,577	Jeff Zuvker made a LOT of mistakes at NBC... ...among them, passing himself off as a network programmer when he really wasn't one. He took a first-rate network and turned it into a fifth-rate one. And the more misjudgement and mistakes in prime-time he caused, the higher he was promoted within the company, because he made money for the network and its corporate parent, General Electric. The moment NBC stopped being a "cash cow", Zucker became a liability. And one of those mistakes was moving Jay Leno to 10pm(et), Monday through Friday. He realized too late that Jay was still popular at 11:35, and wasn't quite ready to let Conan take over "THE TONIGHT SHOW". But, as usual, he made the mistake of making a decision he hadn't quite thought out {"EMERIL"? "COUPLING"?}, years before, and promised Conan he'd get that 11:35 time period, or he'd lose him to another network. And in the end, he did. And now that Jay's been back at 11:35 for over a year, his ratings aren't what they used to be....I wonder who gets to replace him? And the biggest loser (without all the weight) was Jeff Zucker. Comcast wouldn't buy their majority interest in NBC/Universal unless he was "out" of the company for good. That was probably the best decision they made in the past 10 years....which is about as long as Zucker was in charge.