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Executive Who’s Been with Discovery for All of Its 25 Years Explains the DNA of Success

Clark Bunting, who is currently the President and General Manager of the Discovery Channel, was one of company’s first employees when it launched 25 years ago.                                                                                1985 logo If there’s a job he hasn’t done at the company it’s…

The Recipe to Following Up ‘Jon & Kate’: A Baker, Some Police Women and a Few Little People, Of Course

Consider this dilemma. You take over a cable network whose ratings have plummeted 30%. Miraculously, you turn it around and ratings jump 43%. Then, your No.1 show self-destructs under the glare of the nation’s media. How do you rebuild from…

Must See Video: Chinese Animation of NBC Latenight Woes. Trust Us, This is Funny

What Joe Abruzzese, Ad Sales Executive Extraordinaire, Did That Changed the Ad Game

In 2002, Joe Abruzzese, then the top ad sales executive at the Tiffany Network, CBS, did a most extraordinary thing. He jumped to cable, taking the helm for ad sales at Discovery Communications. As one top media agency person told…

Zucker Takes Responsibility for Leno’s 10 p.m. Failure; Fred Silverman, a Former NBC Programming Chief, Calls In-Fighting ‘A Corporate Embarrassment’

NBC Universal head Jeff Zucker said he takes responsibility for the failure of Jay Leno’s prime time program, The New York Times reports. “At the end of the day Jay at 10 o’clock didn’t work,” Mr. Zucker told The Times,…

Deal Set for Conan and His Staff to Leave NBC with $40 Million

The basic outlines of Conan O’Brien’s exit from NBC were set Sunday night, Jan. 17th,  The New York Times reports. The settlement includes a payment of about $40 million, a portion of which will go to the comedian’s staff members….

Being Allowed to Fail May be Behind the Success of Animal Planet

We continue our series of interviews with the top executives of Discovery Communicaions, TVWeek’s "Cable TV Programmer of the Decade." Today we speak with Marjorie Kaplan, who’s been with Discovery for 13 years, the last three overseeing a major transformation…

Report: Deal Set for Conan O’Brien to Leave; NBC Won’t Invoke Non-Compete

The deal is set for Conan O’Brien to leave NBC with a payout, and NBC won’t keep him from jumping to another network before his contract expires, according to a report by the veteran–and well-respected–entertainment reporter Kim Masters at The Daily…

Henry Schleiff, President and General Manager, Investigation Discovery, Military Channel and HD Theater

‘The one thing that Investigation Discovery shares with TMZ is it’s almost a sister network in terms of the passion of its audience. And this is a business of passion. The programming we play is about passion plays. Often with one side…

TVWeek Honors the Cable TV Programmer of the Decade

By Chuck Ross If the past 10 years are notable for a single achievement in television, it’s been the flowering of cable TV programming. By decade’s end, from "Mad Men" to "Dexter" to "Curb Your Enthusiasm" to "Damages" to "The…