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Posts Tagged “
Jeff Zucker
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NBC Chief's Katie Couric Visit
"COULD Katie Couric be returning to NBC? That was the buzz yesterday morning after NBC boss Jeff Zucker was spotted climbing out of his black SUV on a visit to Couric, who left the Today show to anchor CBS Evening News, at her East Side apartment." This is followed by a highly implausible cover story/denial involving Couric running errands for Zucker. [Post]
feuds
the future
I'll Be First In Line For The Cinemark BoozeMaxxtreme
So! Jeff Zucker says Universal will inevitably release movies simultaneously on various media. DVDs! Theaters! Downloads! Which is kind of like it already is for those of us who steal movies online! It's a magical wonderful future, not because I'll get to instantly watch a lamer version of a movie at home on my iMac and my Logitech speakers, but because the only way theaters could survive this change is to kick the theater-going experience up a notch. And that had better mean beer, food and double features. More »
microwave programming
Jeff Zucker Taking All The Fun Out Of Broadcast TV
Fourth place TV mogul Jeff Zucker brings us the genius of 30 Rock from his perch at NBC, and yet he's ruining everything the show stands for, starting with the fact that broadcast television is supposed to be an awesome bonfire of money, fame and sex. In the wake of his decision to kill most TV pilots because they're way too expensive, Zucker just gave a big industry speech in Las Vegas (capital of frugality and moderation) to not only reaffirm that decision but also to say NBC is about to stop putting on a big fun show for advertisers called the "upfront," will probably stop putting on junkets for journalists (oh yes) and even wants government permission to get rid of cash-bleeding news and weather operations! Has the man learned nothing from Jack Donaghy? See the clip after the jump. More »
jeff zucker
NBC Universal To Stop Shooting Pilots Says CEO Jeff Zucker
NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker announced NBC would no longer blow tons of dough shooting poorly thought-out but memorably expensive television pilots. He says it's due to the recession which totally exists (Zucker was at the bleak World Economic Forum conference in Davos when he made the announcement) but could it also be an act of retaliation against the striking writers? According to the NYT, other studios are likely to follow NBC's move. While this makes fiscal sense for the struggling studios—NBC has, in the well-chosen words of Zucker "At NBC Entertainment we’ve been flat on our backs for the last few years.”—it is bad news for the public. From whence will the next LAX 2194 or Poochinksi emerge? How will future generations be able to sally forth in the absence of Fuzzbucket, a tale of love between a boy and his troll?
NBC chief Jeff Zucker just bought Kitty Carlisle Hart's five bedroom palace on 64th Street for $12.5 million. That works out to the same price as 75,000 seconds of primetime NBC ads. [NYM]
the hamptons
Peggy Siegal Is Not A Caterer
When unaging (at least around the face!) PR doyenne Peggy Siegal throws a movie party in the Hamptons, she bizarrely expects you to see whatever movie she's working on. On Sunday, it was some Jaime Foxx action flick called The Kingdom. When we rolled up for her party at Savannah's in Southampton about ten minutes before the movie ended, no one was in the restaurant yet. Peggy approached: Jackie Onassis meets Nan Talese meets Allison Janney. "Sorry, we're early!" said Deb Schoeneman, the editor in chief of Hamptons Style. Peggy's eyes were burning embers of annoyance in their deep sockets. "It's O.K. this time but not again. I'm in the movie business. Not the catering business," she said. Awkward! People arrived. Jeff Zucker, the short bald president of NBC Universal, worked the tables like a croupier. More »
Kevin Reilly, recently canned from NBC by Jeff Zucker, becomes president of the entertainment division at Fox. How will things be different? "There is going to be no paranoia about hidden agendas. We are going to speak with one voice." Take that, chrome dome! [NYT]
Jeff Zucker meets with Jon Stewart in case NBC sticks with Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien bolts the network, possibly to replace David Letterman or Jimmy Kimmel. Got it? [B&C]
falling up
Jeff Zucker Wields The Knife At NBC
Three months after signing a three-year extension with the network, NBC's entertainment chief Kevin Reilly is out of a job, being replaced by Ben Silverman, producer of "The Office." The news was first reported by Hollywood blabbermouth Nikki Finke (please save the e-mails, Nikki, we mean it in a good way) on Friday, and then regurgitated without credit by the New York Times and the LAT yesterday. (Classy!) The Wall Street Journal notes that Reilly, responsible the for "Heroes," last season's only hit, got like a totally raw deal. More »
barely legal
Buttafuoco and Fisher Ask, "Stunt for What?" on Less Prestigious 'ET' Spin-off
Back in 2004, when Queen Bee wannabe Hillary Rodham didn't even know that she didn't know what she knows now, a more sympathetic New Yorker self-published a book called If I Knew Then... And? Turns out that Long Island Ophelia Amy Fisher would have still fallen head over shotgun for that prime rib/subprime mortgage of a man
executives
Jeff Zucker Is Alec Baldwin With Less Screaming At Child, Even Less Hair
The new Fortune profile of bald, internet-loving NBC chief Jeff Zucker doesn't bring anything to the table in terms of information—Some people think Jeff Zucker is an asshole! NBC is in a lot of trouble! Somehow Zucker still has a job! "Joey" really sucked!—but is of some interest because of its premise. You see, Zucker is a lot like Jack Donaghy, the fictional beleaguered NBC exec on the actual semi-popular NBC sitcom "30 Rock." Donaghy is played by Alec Baldwin, whose recent telecommunications issues have made him oh-so-ubiquitous in the media lately. Fortune did a photoshoot and a "humorous" interview with the pair, which it subsequently decided "amidst the subsequent Baldwin controversy, not to use in the magazine." Because controversy is really best just ignored when trying to sell magazines. At least they ran 'em online—our personal favorite is the image to the right. Oh gosh, jeez, good golly, one can only imagine what Baldwin's saying into the "phone"! More »
weekend 'readings'
TiVo Theosophy: NBC To Void Discursive Taboos, Fiat Further Tragedy With Action Serials!
It's hard with all that sixth-order navel-gazing and water-cooler fellatio and gripping boardroom oratory on the weekdays to keep up with what's actually going on at Media Level Zero. You know, like on TV and stuff. Thus, TiVo Theosophy, in which our special correspondent Daniel Luxemburg, who may or may not own a television, momentarily steps out of the geist-glow to tell us what it all means. And why to go on anyway. Or not. Consider him a First Life avatar. More »
contrived meritocracy as ideological state apparatus
But Can Sanjaya Balance Traditional Strategies With Cutting-Edge Arbitrage Opportunities?
In the Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition, Karen Richardson has a wonderful story about World's Second Richest Person Warren Buffet — he's a bit like John the Baptist to Bill Gate's Jesus — and how he's cutely put out an A.P.B. for a man (yes, MAN; let's not kid ourselves) to replace him as Berkshire Hathaway's Chief Investment Officer. You can imagine the meta-narrative all this fits into:Now, the résumés are flooding in — and the process is turning out to be every bit as unconventional as the billionaire investor himself. Among the 600 or so applicants so far: a Talmudic scholar who picks stocks from home, a Canadian economist with an intense yoga practice and even a four-year-old.More »
harvard
Harvard Oddly Good For Careers, Says 'NYT'
You know what's handy when going to work as an editor on the media beat at the New York Times? Having been pals in college with "future media stars" like Jeff Zucker! Oh, also, that college would be called "Harvard," a place that goes unnamed in today's in-house announcement of Jennifer Kingson's appointment as deputy media editor in the Biz section. Lil' Jeffy Zucker, now Prez and CEO of NBC, was back then the editor of the school paper, the Crimson, natch. Speaking of! We hear today's Harvard kids up at the Crimson just hired themselves an ombudsman! Hope they enjoy that. More »
fcc
Media Bubble: Erectile Misfirings
media
