What's So Terrible About Jeff Zucker?

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Hiring Ben Silverman

Desperate for something, anything, to turn around the network's misfortune, Zucker began taking higher-profile risks, and none was riskier than the hiring of Ben Silverman. A young, overconfident turk from the studio side, Silverman had originally been dispatched to WMA's London outpost, where he secured the rights to several successful UK franchises for U.S. TV, including Coupling (which Zucker remade, with disastrous results), The Office and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The Office's U.S. version, produced through Silverman's Reveille, was a rare light on the NBC schedule -- though it took a little while to find its legs, just like many hit NBC shows had in the past.

Zucker squeezed Kevin Reilly out of his position as President of NBC Entertainment to give Silverman the title of co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios. The self-described "rock star" produced zero hits for the network during his tenure, focusing mostly on rebooting campy '80s properties like American Gladiators and Knight Rider. Stories of drug use, hangovers, ski trips while NBC was laying off hundreds dogged him, and despite Zucker saying "Ben is here to stay for the forseeable future," Silverman left quietly in July of 2009, to work on a new internet company with Barry Diller. He had been Zucker's biggest and most embarrassing gaffe to date.

Writer's Strike

The long, acrimonious writers' strike of 2008 offered Zucker -- and, it turned out, Jay Leno -- plenty of opportunities to flaunt their true colors. Leno famously crossed picket lines, and violated Writers Guild law, by penning his own monologues. Zucker, meanwhile, was among those on the studio side rumored to be least sympathetic to the writers' demands. After a group of SNL writers were schedules to appear on Late Show with David Letterman to deliver a Top Ten list ("Top Ten Demands of the Striking Writers"), an irate Zucker purportedly threatened their jobs, causing them to pull out at the last minute. Interestingly enough, the one writer not to cave was Chris Albers, a Conan O'Brien writer who delivered the bit as written on air.

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Another classic bit of Zuckerana came with a filmed video starring him, scheduled to air before My Name is Earl's return after its strike hiatus. Betraying what could only be a secret ambition to perform (Reilly had put in an enjoyable Office cameo, and Zucker probably figured he was at least as funny as the well-liked exec he had recently sent packing), Zucker's performance -- Borat impressions and all -- can only be described as a trainwreck. A snide trainwreck, it so happens, as in it he describes NBC.com as the place "where you can watch all of your favorite shows, preferably within the first 17 days." Why 17 days? That was what producers had negotiated as the window before writers were paid for material streamed online. Classy. If it wasn't official yet, now it was: every writer in Hollywood hated, and still hates, Jeff Zucker. (The video has since gone missing from NBC.com, but you can watch it here.)

Late Night Fiasco

None of these individual blots would quite compare to the PR nightmare in which Zucker currently finds himself embroiled -- an instance of mismanagement so forehead-smackingly incompetent, it has broken free from the realm of studio-lot scuttlebutt and escalated into a national, even international, firestorm. Hundreds of thousands of Conan fans, outraged over NBC's treatment of their amiable home-grown star, are on the warpath, and it's Zucker's name they are shouting. The brand is irreversibly damaged, and, like any nation steered by a greedy and corrupt government, any redemption will have to come with a fresh regime. Zucker -- pictured below, surveying the damage after the devastating Universal lot fire -- has his work cut out for him.

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Comments

  • Desk_hack says:

    Since you brought up the strike: how was Leno able to stay in the Guild if he wrote his own monologues? I thought anyone who wrote a word that was broadcast was immediately expelled.

  • I think they actually listened to Jay's monologues and figured that was punishment enough.

  • TAM says:

    Actually the Guild officially determined that Leno didn't violate union rules during the strike.
    Source: http://www.laweekly.com/2009-09-10/news/the-writers-guild-cleared-jay-leno-but-now-must-indict-itself/
    There are a lot of reasons to hate Leno, but scabbing isn't one of them.

  • Metropo says:

    Personally, with fresh eyes I'm looking at NBC and my respect is diminished. With the exception of Dateline NBC with Chris Hanson and The Today Show (miss Katy), I won't be watching.
    People who have worked hard deserve to be treated with respect by corporate suits.
    I think Craig Ferguson would be the perfect king of "The Tonight Show." He has the maturity, class, humbleness and comedic talent to make the show live up to it's legacy. Craig deserves the 30+ million just to take the show. Jay and Conan had a good run with NBC. Now it's time for other's to give America something fresh and new.
    Dawn
    Mountain View, California

  • emberglance says:

    You failed to mention his similarity to an engorged penis...
    But, in the interest of being Fair and Balanced, why no mention of the devastatingly successful 30 Rock?

  • Seth Abramovitch says:

    30 Rock ranked 109th, 94th and 69th place in each of its first three seasons. I wouldn't qualify that as devastatingly successful.

  • Mink Snuggie says:

    Heroes, while not a hit NOW, was most decidedly a hit for NBC during its first season. Just because it's a pariah now doesn't mean that it never existed, and never got respectable ratings.

  • emberglance says:

    True, I was thinking of all the awards. My comments re an engorged penis stand though.

  • karla karlottta says:

    Zucker is the model for corporate America. Fail, FU, blame underlings and get promoted.
    He's a power hungry, talentless hack who must hold some damaging film on higher ups. That's the only way I can see why he still has a job.
    And pox on the suckup NBC execs and stars who kiss his ass just to get their crappy shows on the air. Hear that Jerry?