Reuters has an interesting read on the "what ifs" for Jeff Zucker should Comcast take control of NBC Universal. The story goes into some of Zucker's misses and hits as well and Vanity Fair's Michael Wolff isn't betting against Zucker's survival instincts should the Comcast deal come to pass.
The chief criticism is his failure to lift the NBC broadcast network out of last place in prime-time ratings. It is an uncomfortable spot for any network but particularly wretched for one that owned TV in the 1990s with blockbusters such as "Seinfeld," "Friends" and "Frazier."
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Another effort badly backfired. Two years ago, Zucker hired Ben Silverman, a young, popular producer, to kickstart NBC's prime-time schedule. A number of missteps followed, described by Time magazine as "a string of wild parties, gaffes and high-profile flops" before Silverman left NBC in July.
[...]
Cable now makes up roughly 60 percent of NBC Universal's revenue. That is the very reason the company has caught the eye of Comcast -- and that may prove the best chance of staying aboard for Zucker, an avid tennis player and a cancer survivor."I cannot imagine him in any situation being helpless," said Wolff. "He's nobody's pawn."
The story casts some doubts though on Zucker's chances of sticking around should a deal get done simply because of strong relationship between Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts and Comcast's second-in-command Steve Burke.
I guess when you’re the fourth place network, the press doesn’t have to worry about spell-checking your former hits? (It’s FRASIER, Reuters… “FRASIER”!
)
NBC had a boxing show about Joe Frazier?
I don’t see him as a pawn, I see him as holding dirty pictures of his bosses at GE to keep his Job. He Needs to be fired NOW.
I thought Zucker was managing for the margins, so that being in 4th place doesn’t matter :p
why is he still anything
he should have been canned with the that super cool young hip producer.
maybe being bought by comcast is the best thing possible for NBC
(but now the peoples are saying that GE would keep 49% of NBC-UNI so who knows)
but wi
I think its misguided to look solely at the performance of NBC and brand Zucker incompetent.
Remember that whilst NBC has struggled and sunk the NBCU cable portfolio has gone in the opposite direction. If people wish to at least partially blame Zucker for the failures at NBC then he must also get at least some of the credit for the successes at USA and SyFy amongst others. In fact if you look bigger picture wise it could be suggested that Zucker has far more success under his belt at NBCU than failures, the problem is that the failure is the biggest/most recognisable brand.
Would people, for example, be as harsh on Zucker if the NBCU prospects were reversed? If NBC were leading broadcast but their cable output was sinking fast would he be classed as an incompetent who needed to go? It seems unlikely.
Zucker’s future in the wake of a deal with Comcast or anyone else is infinitely more complicated than the state of NBC, which is an increasingly small part of the NBCU portfolio and exists on what is a slowly dying medium in traditional broadcast television. If Comcast is going to buy (into) NBCU then it seems unlikely to me that they’re doing it to get their hands on NBC and much more likely that they’re doing it to get their hands on the NBCU cable output. I think given how well the cable side of the business has seemingly been managed and the recent changes at NBC itself (Gaspin for Silverman being the most obvious) Zucker won’t immediately be going anywhere.
Whether or not he stays long term would I imagine have more to do with internal politics than the performance of NBC or even the cable networks.
NBC knew they had a turkey of a fall schedule by July and that’s when they canned Ben Silverman. NBC has had one misstep after another with its broadcast network. As soon as they get a hit, they mess it up. Remember how “Medium” came as a midseason replacement in its first season and it was a hit, and then NBC forgot to put it on the fall schedule later that same year? Remember how “Deal or No Deal” was another hit for NBC but they managed to strangle the life out of it? These were all things that happened prior to Ben Silverman and they will continue now after he is gone. NBCU needs to make changes.
Were old school, Broadcast Network first, Cable second.
Greg, Medium premiered in the 2004-2005 season, and was on the fall schedule for the 2005-2006 season. It was removed from the 2006-2007 season in favor of Sorkin’s folly, Studio 60.
NBC has a bigger problem than Zucker (who should’ve been in charge of NBC News period). They’ve lost their audience. This is what happens when you put network politics above hiring people who know good shows from bad. 30 Rock is a critical hit but nobody’s watching it. The Office, trapped in the cellar, is unwatchable. Heroes unwatchable and unwatched. Not sure what happened to Conan. He used to be funny at 12:30. He used to be a good interviewer at 12:30. NBC has the Midas touch – everything they touch turns to mufflers. NBC spent two decades making deals with their pet producers who couldn’t produce a hit. They had Seinfeld and Friends on for ten years. TEN YEARS and they couldn’t produce one hit??? My question is what took a cable company so long to step up?! But the bigger question isn’t Zucker, he’s a pimple on GE’s butt. The question… GE sells businesses that aren’t #1 or #2 in their sectors. Why did they hold onto a fourth place network this long?
Because Butch, as previously stated NBC is an increasingly small part of the NBC Universal portfolio and whilst the network arm of the group is doing poorly the cable sector is doing fantastically well. People need to remember that there’s much more to NBCU than NBC.
Looking at NBC’s ratings and waiting for Jeff Zucker to get fired is like looking at “Ghost Whisperer” and waiting for Jennifer Love Hewitt’s boobs to fall out of her top. You keep thinking it’s gonna happen any minute now, but it never does. I got to give Zucker credit for one thing. Oh, sure, he pretty much singlehandedly destroyed NBC, but he did it and has managed to last 8, going on 9, years anyway. Not since Tony Thomopoulos has one man singlehandedly been responsible for driving a network from first to last place — and Thomopoulos only lasted 7 years before the axe fell. So congratulations to Jeff on his “success!”
The idea that Jeff Zucker has single-handedly run NBC into the ground is incredibly flawed.
And again I will say that if people want to hand blame for NBC’s fate over to Zucker then he must also take the credit for the success of USA, SyFy and every other NBC Universal owned cable channel. As I said previously NBCU is much more than NBC and NBC itself is an increasingly small part of the NBCU portfolio and in reality its hard to knock that decision. Traditional broadcast isn’t going to last much longer in its current state, sure there’s no reason to give up on NBC out right but to try and maintain it as the corner stone of your business is a terrible idea moving forward over the long term.
Zucker was president of entertainment at NBC when the bottom started to fall out. Remind me again when he was president of entertainment at USA, Syfylis and every other NBC Universal owned cable channel? Oh, that’s right. Never.
Perhaps, just perhaps, that might be the reason why the bottom didn’t fall out on USA, Sci-Fi and every other NBC Universal owned cable channel…