NBC Universal President & CEO, Jeff Zucker is rumored to be leaving the Peacock Network where he has been a force since 1986. He started in the research department and worked his way up the ranks and finally became President & CEO of NBC Universal in 2007, replacing bigwig Bob Wright. After months of a rumored take-over, Comcast the largest cable operator and internet service provider in the United States, announced in December that they would take a controlling 51% stake in NBC Universal from General Electric. Zucker, who got blamed since 2008 for the low numbers NBC was getting, came under major scrutiny during the whole Leno – Conan mess. Supposedly, Zucker was to share the spotlight with incoming COO of Comcast, Steve Burke, but we all know in Hollywood when there’s two heads on top, one usually rolls off. If Zucker walks, it looks like he’s in good company, somewhere north of $30 million dollar company. Now that’s company I would like to keep.
Bye-Bye, Jeff. His payout will definitely be sweet. And by the way – putting a late night talk show during prime didn’t work years ago – I don’t know why he thought it would work now. What an – might I say – embarassing – mess. Let’s see what Comcast does.