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Jeff Zucker Breaks Silence About Katie Couric’s Show, Revisits Jay Leno-Conan O’Brien Fiasco

Jun 29, 2011  •  Post A Comment

Appearing in a Q&A session at PromaxBDA, former NBCUniversal President and CEO Jeff Zucker opened up about Katie Couric’s upcoming talk show–which Zucker will executive produce with Couric–and about NBC’s now infamous failed programming experiment with Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Zucker, who left NBC in February, accepted responsibility for the Leno-O’Brian fiasco, but explained it this way: “I don’t regret necessarily what we tried by asking Jay to do 10 o’clock and Conan to do [‘The Tonight Show’]. What I regret is neither show worked. That’s what happened: Neither show worked. And then we had to make a decision about how to fix them.”

He said ultimately returning Leno to the “Tonight Show” chair was “the right decision.”

But Zucker added: “It doesn’t make me happy to say that. I regret that we had to make the decisions. There were no winners out of that. A lot of people got hurt in that process. And that was incredibly unfortunate.”

Zucker was upbeat about the Couric project. “I think what people have missed for a long time is the Katie who was part of … the ‘Today’ show and who is big enough to have fun and be serious all in one show,” he said. “That’s really what you’ll see [on her talk show]. That’s what her brand is. It’s a brand that has credibility and fun. Our hope is we take that into that program. It’s a tremendous opportunity.”

3 Comments

  1. If Katie Couric were a brand, it would be “Moronic.”

  2. Oprah was about 30 when her show took off nationally, now 25 years later and at 57, she’s moving on. Couric is closing in on 55 witha dream to replace Oprah, mmm, let see, that would make Jeff Zucker an idiot, certainly not a mathematician. I think we all a little tired of having Couric shoved down a throats — and now he’s giving the old broad another chance — and she don’t give a damn — she’s laughing all the way to the bank. Need I remind everyone she’s getting 20 million dollars. For what? That is the 20 million dollar question.

  3. Ms. Couric wants to be taken seriously, yet she seems oh-so happy to pose for photographs accentuating what she deems to be her best quality – her legs. Which are you Katie – a journalist or a fashion model?

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