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Jeff Zucker, Who Leaves NBC Universal This Friday, Does Exit Interview at NATPE, Praises Olbermann

Jan 24, 2011  •  Post A Comment

Jeff Zucker, the outgoing CEO of NBC Universal who leaves the company this Friday, Jan. 28, 2011, had an exit interview today in Miami at the annunal NATPE connvention, reports Alex Ben Block in The Hollywood Reporter.

According to the article, "Zucker was interviewed by Wall Street stock market analyst Michael Nathanson of Nomura Securities, who revealed he is also Zucker’s brother-in-law. Nathanson’s first question was what Zucker thought about the departure of Keith Olbermann from MSNBC. Zucker said he couldn’t talk about it beyond what the network had announced, but did call Olbermann ‘one of the great stars’ at the cable network, and one of the reasons for its recent success. He said Olbermann may be leaving but MSNBC remains ‘in a strong position.’

The article says Zucker also said that what he enjoyed most during his 24-year tenure at the company was producing news and sports:  “I’m passionate about producing," said Zucker, adding that he has been doing a lot of thinking about "getting back into that."

The story adds that "Zucker also defended the deals he has done with Netflix. ‘It replaced the back-end syndication model for some shows that had gone away,’ said Zucker, ‘and we needed a back end for those shows.’ "

5 Comments

  1. Jeff Zucker is one of the last class acts left in the TV business. He made the modern TV Show the dependably enjoyable, positive and relatively sophisticated show it is. He’s a true master of smart programming, creative ensemble-building, and network brand building. He has nothing left to prove.
    Ben Counts/Chicago

  2. Jeff Zucker is one of the last class acts left in the TV business. He made the modern TV Show the dependably enjoyable, positive and relatively sophisticated show it is. He’s a true master of smart programming, creative ensemble-building, and network brand building. He has nothing left to prove.
    Ben Counts/Chicago

  3. Zucker is living proof of the Peter Principle.

  4. It is always good to have relatives do your interviews.

  5. Congratulations to Jeff Zucker for holding a record as tough to beat as Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak: destroying NBC Primetime and NBC Latenight. Good work.

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