NBC
Anti-NBC Frenzy Continues Over Conan's $40M Firing; Zucker Threatens to Ice O'Brien For Three Years
Ari Emmanuel, Conan O'Brien, Hollywood, Jeff Zucker, NBC
NIKKI FINKE
DATELINE HOLLYWOOD
BREAKING NEWS! EXCLUSIVE! 11TH UPDATE, SUNDAY 8:50 AM: Below is Saturday Night Live‘s cold opening about the festering late night debacle about to end — now possibly Tuesday after the MLK long weekend — with NBC’s $40 million “don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out” payment to Conan O’Brien that also frees him to compete against Jay Leno immediately. Best line of the show was SNL
Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers’: “This week you didn’t need Cinemax to see someone screwed on TV.” It’s amazing and bewildering that the network keeps vigorously promoting this comedy of errors to the media via video clips of its own employees denigrating and humiliating the beleaguered brand.
(I asked one SNL insider if there was any behind the scenes bitching from the suits because of the NBC bashing. “None at all.”) Perhaps, at this nadir, NBC has to put ratings above its own reputation. Or maybe there’s just no defense possible. Although Jeff Zucker keeps desperately trotting out more and more NBC execs — first entertainment boss Jeff Gaspin, then sports czar Dick Ebersol, then news topper Steve Capus — to give dictation to The New York Times in support of himself. (When did stenography replace reporting there?) In that article, Zucker tries to play the victim of a media frenzy — but it was a self-inflicted wound. Hollywood is now hearing from people around Zucker how he’s “‘wiped out from his Conan ordeal’,” Deadline New York Editor Mike Fleming learned last night, “Zucker apparently scrapped plans to fly to LA with his family for tonight’s Golden Globes broadcast by NBC or the NBC Universal after-party.
At least that is how he is feeling at the moment.” Meanwhile, someone posting O’Brien’s Tonight Show episodes at NBC’s Hulu.com weighed in on the Team Conan vs Team Leno battle. “When you highlight the January 13th Conan clip with your cursor, the tag reads ‘better than leno’,” a tipster showed me. Then there’s this zinger from O’Brien’s longtime rep Gavin Palone. The manager sent an email to CBS mogul Les Moonves, while this mess unfolded, asking whether “a long time ago you planted Jeff Zucker there as a way to destroy NBC from inside.” Ouch!
10TH UPDATE, FRIDAY 5:15 PM: A settlement of NBC vs Conan is close but not yet signed. “There are still issues to be worked out,” an insider reports back to me. This follows all-day negotiations between NBC and its attorneys, and Team Conan and their manager-agency-lawyer reps. “There’ve been some very intense conversations”.
All are under confidentiality agreements. So to what extent did NBC blink? Remember that all week, as I’ve been reporting, NBCU chief Jeff Zucker stuck to an extreme position that threatened to hold Conan to his contract and keep him off the air for 3 1/2 years and not pay him a penny of that $60M penalty fee if O’Brien doesn’t host The Tonight Show as the network promised. Instead of a prolonged and ugly battle, NBC has given in to Team Conan who’ve insisted their guy exits only with a lot of cash and freedom. How much cash?
“Zucker’s NBC spin puts it at $25 million. But it’s a lot closer to $40 million than $25 million,” my insider says. “And Conan was adamant that NBC take care of the people close to him — [executive producer] Jeff Ross and the staff who moved out to Los Angeles.” According to the pact, Conan leaves The Tonight Show on January 22nd. Meanwhile, he’s free to go anywhere and compete with Jay. This is that Ron Meyer-negotiated deal (which I first reported yesterday at 3 PM). The Universal Studios president/COO was asked to step in secretly by WME agents Ari Emanuel when Team Conan and NBC were so far apart they weren’t even on speaking terms. “They [NBC Universal] were lucky to have Ron.” I’m told the deal might close as soon as Saturday. And NBC’s PR nightmare will end. Or will it? In his Friday night monologue, Conan defended himself against NBC sports czar Dick Ebersole’s very public (and inappropriate) takedown: “In the press this week, NBC has been calling me every name in the book. In fact, they think I’m such an idiot, they now want me to run the network.”
National Broadcasting Company Soon To Be Owned By Cable
Media, NBC, Television, VivendiNEW YORK TIMES DEALBOOK BLOG (Sorkin)
November 30, 2009, 8:17 pm <!– — Updated: 8:33 pm –>
G.E. and Vivendi Agree on Value of NBC Universal
Update | 8:28 p.m. General Electric has reached a tentative agreement to buy Vivendi’s 20 percent stake in NBC Universal for about $5.8 billion, helping clear the path to a sale of the television and movie company to Comcast, people briefed on the matter told DealBook.
But much remains to be negotiated, these people warned. The Vivendi agreement values NBC Universal at $29 billion, less than the $30 billion or so that G.E. and Comcast had agreed to last month.
Harmonizing the two values, as in so much of the talks over NBC Universal, may take days to do, and these people cautioned that a deal may not be reached.
Still, many analysts and people close to the talks expect a deal to be forged soon, and with it a reshaping of the entertainment industry.
The groundwork for the tentative pact between G.E. and Vivendi was laid out last week, when G.E.’s chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, met in person with his counterpart at Vivendi, Jean-Bernard Lévy, in Paris, these people said.
If it holds, the agreement would conclude weeks of hardball negotiations between G.E. and Vivendi over an alliance first forged in 2004. Resolving the issue of Vivendi’s stake is crucial to completing the G.E.-Comcast deal. But the French company took a tough stance, brandishing its option of holding an initial public offering for its stake rather than selling it back to G.E.
Under the current outlines of the agreement between G.E. and Comcast, NBC Universal would be put into a new joint venture, between the two giants. Comcast would pour billions of dollars in cash and its own cable channels for a 51 percent stake, while G.E. would hold an initial 49 percent and contribute about $12 billion in debt.
G.E., which has owned NBC for more than two decades, is expected to eventually sell its ownership interest to Comcast over the next several years.
– Michael J. de la Merced and Bill Carter
"There's No Such Thing As Supertrain"
70's, American Television, NBC, Supertrain, Television, TVGlenn Greenwald Waterboards Chuckie Todd
Chuck Todd, Glenn Greenwald, NBC, Salon, Torture, White House Press Corpse, WiretappingGlenn Greenwald
Yesterday, I voiced several criticisms of comments made earlier this week by NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd regarding potential torture investigations by the Obama Justice Department. Shortly thereafter, he emailed me to say that he wished I had contacted him before posting. In response, I invited him to participate in a podcast discussion with me of the issues raised by his remarks and my analysis of them, and, to his credit, he accepted.
This morning, I spoke with Todd for roughly 30 minutes about the relative significance of torture investigations, the implications of failing to prosecute high-level political officials when they break the law, the role of the media in these matters, and whether Todd was expressing his own views or merely repeating what the White House believes (the polling data I reference, along with the media’s routine distortion of it, is documented here and here). The discussion can be heard by clicking PLAY on the recorder below (it can be also downloaded by MP3 here or by ITunes here). A transcript will be posted later today.
UPDATE: The transcript is now available here.
NBC Sticks to the Script for Six New Prime-Time Series
NBC, Prime Time, S.A.G., Scripted Television, Television, UniversalThe Brilliant Lisa de Moraes…..
THE WASHINGTON POST
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
NEW YORK
“Chuck” obsessives will have to chow down on Subway foot-longs for at least another week, but fans of the flick “Parenthood” can stop donating disposable diapers to Octomom, or whatever grass-roots campaign it is they’ve hatched to persuade NBC suits to adapt it into a prime-time series starring Peter Krause, Maura Tierney and Craig T. Nelson. It’s a done deal.
“Parenthood,” from Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment, is one of six new scripted series the network unveiled to advertisers Monday at NBC’s 30 Rock HQ.
The list of lucky new series includes two medical dramas — you’re going to hear about a lot of new doc dramas in the next few weeks as all the broadcasters look for the next “ER.” “Trauma” is about a first-response team of paramedics in San Francisco, where helicopters plunge from the sky and cars turn into flying fireballs. The other, “Mercy,” is about a nurse, just back from a tour of duty in Iraq, who is married to a nice guy and in love with a hot doctor at her hospital.
Two comedies made the cut: “100 Questions” is about a bunch of 20-something BFFs — think “Friends,” if Rachel were using an online dating site because she’s so gorgeous she’s having trouble finding guys.
The other comedy, “Community,” is about a study group that perfectly reflects the student body at a community college — community colleges, NBC notes, being a gathering ground for losers, newly divorced housewives and old people trying to keep their minds active as they circle the drain of eternity. The old-person role has gone to Chevy Chase, while Joel McHale of “The Soup” is our hero/loser — a lawyer stripped of his law degree because he lied about graduating from college.
Rounding out the list of new NBC shows: drama series “Day One,” about a global event in which millions of mysterious thingummies from outer space rocket into Earth and pretty much nuke everything — except, that is, an apartment building in Van Nuys, Calif. Residents of this building are now trying to rebuild society — so how lucky is it they’re all young and hot? “Day One” is a midseason order.
NBC also announced it would return Amy Poehler’s not-“The Office”-spinoff “Parks and Recreation” and John Wells’s new cop drama, “Southland,” both of which debuted recently.
Among returning NBC series, “Heroes” made the cut, and NBC has ordered at least six more episodes of those “Saturday Night Live” “Weekend Update” half-hours it ran in prime time last fall — but then that was during a presidential election when interest is always high in “SNL”; this year, of course, it’s not.
NBC Entertainment/Universal Media Studios co-chair Ben Silverman anticipated just that issue Monday afternoon, when he and his NBC Universal colleagues gave a repeat performance of their morning presentation to advertisers, to The Reporters Who Cover Television.
“Can you imagine Joe Biden and swine flu this week?” Silverman said of the prime-time faux news show’s possibilities.
Poehler helped NBC suits unveil their new series pickups to the press: She came out wearing a mask over her nose and mouth because, she said, she is “afraid of monkey sniffles,” she told Silverman onstage. This did not play well with reporters; possibly they thought she was calling them a bunch of monkeys.
Silverman also trotted out Donald Trump so he could ask The Donald why his “Celebrity Apprentice” has been such a groundbreaking show.
“Last night was Chicken of the Sea night. We had a two-hour show about Chicken of the Sea,” Trump reported, adding that the chief of Chicken of the Sea had called him Monday to thank him personally.
“This stuff kills with the advertisers!” Silverman said of the celebrity appearances as The Donald stepped offstage. “It’s like I want to do the moonwalk.”
He did the moonwalk.
This world is a better place because Ben Silverman delivers NBC’s pickups presentation.
Long before Monday’s announcement, NBC had committed to picking up Trump’s show next season. Also returning to NBC are comedies “The Office” and “30 Rock,” but the outlook for “My Name Is Earl” is not bright now that NBC has opted to bring back those “SNL” prime-time half-hours in the fall.
NBC also had already announced it was bringing back “Friday Night Lights,” “Heroes,” “Dateline, “The Biggest Loser” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” though the network still has no deal to bring back its stars, Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni, who reportedly are holding out for an equity stake in the show. “The show is coming back with or without them,” Silverman’s counterpart, NBCE/UMS co-chair Marc Graboff told the press, adding that NBC has an offer on the table to the two thespians and hopes they accept it. Brrrrr!
Not announced are the fates of “Chuck,” “Kath & Kim,” “Medium,” “Life” and “Law & Order: The Mother Ship.”
The word from the stage yesterday, in response to reporters’ questions about the shows’ chances of returning next season: maybe, no one thought to ask, probably, not a chance and most likely.
NBC suits also waxed rhapsodic about Jay Leno’s move to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday.
“He’s one of the most advertiser-friendly people I know,” said NBC Universal sales and marketing president Mike Pilot, adding that this “doesn’t damage the integrity of the show.”
Monday’s announcements were not comprehensive. Silverman said the rest of the series pickups and the network’s actual prime-time schedule will be unveiled the week of May 8 during the traditional Broadcast Upfront Week, when the rest of the broadcast networks will trot out their new lineups. However, figuring out the basics of NBC’s sked isn’t rocket science, now that the 10 p.m. hour is otherwise occupied by Leno.
During Monday’s clambake, Silverman confirmed what the network’s schedule will probably look like. Monday: “Heroes” and another drama night. Tuesday: “The Biggest Loser” night. Wednesday: “Law & Order” franchise night. Thursday: Four-comedy night. Friday: Lower-expectation original programming night. Saturday: Rerun Theater. Sunday: Football.
David Gregory's Past Year Of Intense Prime-Time Bootlicking Lands Him 'Meet The Press' Job
Gregory, MTP, NBCNBC Chief White House correspondent to replace the late Tim Russert
MSNBC
Sun., Dec. 7, 2008
David Gregory has been named moderator of NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” effective immediately. In addition, Betsy Fischer, the program’s longtime executive producer has extended her tenure with the top-rated broadcast. The announcements were made today by Steve Capus, President of NBC News.
“For 61 years, this program has played a vital role in our nation’s political discourse and millions of Americans’ Sunday mornings,” said Capus. “We lost a legend this summer, and today we hand the program over to someone who has a true appreciation and respect for the ‘Meet the Press’ legacy, and a keen sense of what it needs to be in the future. David and Betsy are first-rate and I’m thrilled to have them in their roles at a key time in the program’s, and the country’s, history. I’d also like to thank Tom Brokaw, whose tremendous dedication has helped to lead ‘Meet the Press’ through this critical transition and extraordinary election season. He did so out of honor and respect for our friend Tim Russert, and we’ll always be grateful.”
“I’m honored and deeply humbled as I take on this role,” said Gregory. “I’m filled with a great sense of purpose as I join a superb team to cover Washington and the world from a treasured platform in our country. Above all, I want to make Tim proud.”
“It’s an exciting next chapter in the long history of ‘Meet the Press’ and I, along with the rest of the staff, am eagerly looking forward to this new era.” said Fischer. “Tim so often said one of the most important things for a good journalist to do is be prepared — and there is no doubt that David is prepared for this. Not only is he a huge talent, but his tremendous knowledge of Washington and his persistence for truth and accountability make him a natural fit to uphold the strong ideals of ‘Meet the Press.’”
“Meet the Press” has been the top-rated Sunday morning public affairs show for nearly 11 consecutive years. It’s the longest-running program ever on network television, premiering on NBC-TV on November 6, 1947. The show made its initial debut two years earlier – as a radio program with Martha Rountree and Lawrence Spivak as producers. Gregory is only the tenth person ever to be a permanent host of the program. He follows veteran NBC Newsman Tom Brokaw who served as interim moderator after the untimely death of Tim Russert on June 13, 2008.
In addition to his “Meet the Press” responsibilities, Gregory will be a regular contributor for “Today” and will continue to serve as a back-up anchor for the broadcast. He will also continue as a regular contributor and analyst on MSNBC, and lend his voice and reporting to all NBC News broadcasts including coverage of special events.
Gregory first joined NBC News in 1995. He served as White House Correspondent during the presidency of George W. Bush, reporting extensively on the 9-11 attacks as well as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Gregory has also covered three presidential campaigns in 2000, 2004 and 2008.
Earning a reputation for being one of the toughest questioners of President Bush and his press secretaries, Washingtonian magazine named Gregory one of Washington’s 50 best and most influential journalists, labeling him the “firebrand in the front row.”
On the campaign trail in 2004, and during his years covering the White House Gregory was among the most heavily utilized network correspondent on television, according to the Tyndall Report.
Beyond politics, he has covered nearly every major story for the network: from the O.J. Simpson trials, to the trial of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, to the impeachment of President Clinton, and the death of Pope John Paul II.
Previously, Gregory worked as an NBC News correspondent based in Los Angeles and Chicago. He began his journalism career at the age of 18 as a summer reporter for KGUN-TV in Tucson, Arizona. Gregory also worked for NBC’s flagship West Coast affiliate KCRA-TV in Sacramento.
A native of Los Angeles, he graduated from American University in Washington, D.C. with a bachelor’s degree in International Studies. In 2005, Gregory was named the School of International Service’s alumnus of the year and now sits on the Dean’s advisory council.
Gregory lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife Beth Wilkinson, an attorney, and their three children.
Betsy Fischer has been with “Meet the Press” for 17 years and has served as Executive Producer of the program since July 2002. Additionally, she served as Tom Brokaw’s producer for NBC News’ coverage of the 2008 Presidential Election, including the conventions, debates, and election night. Fischer served with Tim Russert in the same capacity during NBC’s coverage of Special Events, and throughout the 2000, 2004 and 2008 elections.
She has produced interviews with U.S. Presidents, key Cabinet officials, heads of state and every 2004 and 2008 presidential candidate. Fischer also created and produced an award winning series of special “Meet the Press” debates with the candidates from key 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 U.S. Senate races.
Prior to being named to Executive Producer, Fischer was the Senior Producer of “Meet the Press” and the NBC News Political/Polling Unit for five years. Her career at NBC News began with an internship at “Meet the Press” while in college and she became the political researcher in 1992 for the program. Fischer was promoted to Associate Producer in 1995, and a Producer in 1997.
She has recently been awarded the honor of “Young Global Leader of the World 2008” by The World Economic Forum which recognizes 250 global young leaders for their professional accomplishments, their commitment to society and their potential to contribute to the shaping of the future world.
A native of New Orleans, Fischer did her undergraduate and graduate work at American University in Washington, DC. She is a Cum Laude graduate of their School of Public Affairs and earned a M.A. degree in Broadcast Journalism from the AU School of Communications.
Further information on “Meet the Press,” including full bios and photos, will be available at www.mtp.msnbc.com and http://www.nbcumv.com/.
The New York Herald Sun 