“The Tonight Show,” home to Johnny Carsonand unbeatable ratings, was long considered the greatest show on Earth.
These days, it’s just a circus.
The three-ring disaster, starring former and current “Tonight Show” hosts Jay Leno andConan O’Brien, has turned NBC into a monologue punchline as its ratings and profits plummet.
This mess didn’t happen overnight – or even in the seven months since the network’s hedged decision to give O’Brien the “Tonight” slot while creating a 10 p.m. variety show for Leno.
NBC’s failed series of programming gambles and miscalculations began more than five years ago, part of a management trend affecting much of prime-time network television.
“First they said no more miniseries like ‘Roots,'” said Jeff Sagansky, former head of entertainment programming at both CBS and NBC and now chairman of RHI, a production company.
“Then they decided no more made-for-TV movies. Then they decided no more comedies. Then they went prime-time drama and to reality programming, and cable started taking the audience away with comedies and films.”
According to Sagansky, NBC fared worse than the other networks because it suffered from “a lack of cost control, very little innovation and a lack of brand management.”
NBC was the most profitable network eight years ago, in the black to the tune of $1.8 billion and reveling in hits like “Frasier” and “ER.”
This year, Sagansky said, they’re on track to lose $600 million.
Instead of hits, recent NBC programming failures include “Merlin,” “Bionic Woman,” “Lipstick Jungle,” “The Listener,” “Kings” and “My Own Worst Enemy.”
The decision to put Leno on at 10 p.m. was a shortsighted money-saving measure, said Sagansky and others.
While a scripted drama costs $3 million an hour, the Leno show – even with his estimated $30 million annual salary – costs about $500,000 an hour.
In the short run, the network did save money. But over the long haul, NBC surrendered the chance to develop a prime-time drama or comedy that could produce millions in reruns and syndication.
The man taking the fall is Jeff Zucker, 44, CEO of NBC Universal. The brilliant, highly competitive and usually successful news and variety producer made his mark at NBC’s“Today” show.
Zucker was simply the wrong man for the top entertainment programming job, say several former top television executives.
“It’s a different skill set, dealing with comedy and drama and developing programs from the ground up, and you need that education,” saidFred Silverman, the former head of programming at all three networks.
“Entertainment programming is not simply a microcosm of the “Today” show, said Silverman, who selected and nurtured television classics like “All in the Family” and “Hill Street Blues.”
Zucker is absorbing a media beating second to none.
“I got pilloried on ‘The Tonight Show’ and ‘Saturday Night Live‘ when I was in charge, but I was treated like Christ compared to Jeff Zucker,” said Silverman.
Zucker’s spokesman at NBC Universal did not return a phone call seeking comment.
But one of his close friends, Manhattan attorneyGerald Lefcourt, said Zucker’s status as public whipping boy is unwarranted.
“It’s an absolute shame what’s happening to Jeff because he’s just so smart and he has done so many good things for NBC with cable and made incredible profits there,” Lefcourt said.
“He’s just an honest, straight-forward guy and he didn’t cozy up to the Hollywood types, all that phoniness,” said Lefcourt. “And they don’t like him out there because he tried something different.”
