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NY Times, Variety

Turmoil at NBC’s ‘Today’: Top ‘Today’ Show Executive Leaves After Just 10 Weeks — NY Times Says He Was Fired

Nov 17, 2014  •  Post A Comment

“In a new round of turmoil at the long-roiling NBC morning show ‘Today,’ Jamie Horowitz, a former ESPN executive brought in 10 weeks ago to supervise the show, was fired on Monday [Nov, 17, 2014], after what several people at the network said was a series of conflicts with members of the show’s staff as well as the management of NBC News,” reports our good friend Bill Carter in The New York Times.

Carter adds, “The move comes days after Page Six, The New York Post’s gossip site, reported new personnel conflicts at “Today” — which has had its share of those in recent years. The trouble, Page Six reported, was between the show’s long-serving and popular newsreader, Natalie Morales, and a newer member of the broadcast team, Tamron Hall.”

The story also says that “some NBC insiders suspected that Mr. Horowitz was behind the accounts of conflict, especially because the stories included speculation that Mr. Horowitz was already in line to succeed [NBC News President Deborah] Turness, routinely described as embattled, despite the fact that he had barely started at NBC and had no experience as a news journalist.”

Brian Steinberg, writing in Variety, notes that “NBCUniversal’s ability to bring Horowitz, 38, over from Walt Disney’s ESPN had been viewed as something of a coup. Horowitz was a vice president of original programming and production at the sports-cable juggernaut. In recent months, he helped launch ‘Colin’s New Football Show,’ a roost for anchor Colin Cowherd, and Keith Olbermann’s new program, both on ESPN2.

“So interested was NBCUniversal in Horowitz that the company allowed Bill Wolff, the executive producer of MSNBC’s flagship primetime program, ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ and a supervisor of all of that network’s primetime programming, to defect to run ABC’s ‘The View’ in exchange for Horowitz being let out of his ESPN contract early. Before that happened, Horowitz was not expected to join NBC until early next year.”

We urge you to click on the links above, to The New York Times and Variety, to read their reports about Horowitz’s exit from NBC.

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3 Comments

  1. The Today Show probably is not fixable. Viewers are probably leaving the show, and the morning time period, in part because of mobile phones and the instant availability of news on phones, tablets, etc… Another words, morning news shows could be becoming anachronisms.

  2. As a former Journalist, I am saddened by the continued decline of the “NBC Today Show!” As a viewer, sitting on the deck of the NBC version of Titanic I am ready to jump ship. Tired of hours of promotion for entertainers and former United States presidential families. Where is the news? There are incredible discoveries being made every day, opportunities for NBC to provide life changing information to viewers … but informercial /entertainment prevails. NBC needs new navigator with a societal GPS not more gossip!

  3. I am so sick of hearing about the trump!
    Why do you continuously allow him to be interviewed live on tv?
    I’ve been a faithful NBC viewer forever, However you should probably take a stand against Trump. Before you lose more viewers.
    I don’t want to hear his voice again!
    He sucks!

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