And you wonder why GE will be forced to unload NBC-U!? It's cuzza boneheaded decisions like this: Four years ago, Jeff Zucker humiliated Jay Leno by offering "The Tonight Show" job to Conan O'Brien. It was a hamfistedly mean move, done to a guy who everyone likes, who had been a team player for NBC for decades.
And yet Leno, trouper that he is, responded by making his show better, to the point now where Leno solidly defeats Letterman in the ratings.
James Hibberd and Paul J. Gough recall that great bone-brained Zuckerian moment in programming history in The Hollywood Reporter:
Little did the Peacock know back in 2004 when then-NBC Universal TV president Jeff Zucker guaranteed Conan O'Brien that he would take Leno's job five years later that the succession would turn late-night on its ear.
Nice going, Jeff. You and Jeff Immelt will have a lot to talk about.
