After Jeff Zucker's trip to the Congressional woodshed at a House Judicial Affairs Committee meeting this week over lack of racial diversity at NBC, is Meet the Press about to take another stab at diversifying its panels and newsmakers? (more...)

video Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, Shani Davis...your new American Idols! For the first time in six years, American Idol did not finish #1 in the ratings - losing last night to NBC's Olympics coverage that featured some big name Americans winning gold. The win had NBCU President Jeff Zucker bragging early this morning. (more...)

Back in 2003, when it still seemed like the invasion of Iraq might be the military equivalent of a quickie, outbidding your rivals by $700 million for a TV contract that, even in the sunniest conceivable outlook, was going to lose you money also seemed, apparently, like a rather bright idea.  (What the hell happened, in 2003?  What was in the air?  You get the feeling we should be looking for answers not to historians but astrologists, tide-charts, nationwide MSG-intake.) So it did, at any rate, to Dick Ebersol.  The president of NBC’s sports division, Ebersol now finds himself the author and guarantor of NBC’s latest self-inflicted ordeal – one that the network itself concedes may cost them upwards of $250 million. (more...)

Last night I was on the Joy Behar Show to discuss the Conan-Leno-NBC-Late-Night kerfuffle. Joy spoke first with Bill Carter of the New York Times, pretty much the go-to expert on all things late night thanks to his seminal — and still relevant! — book The Late Shift. Following Carter's comments (he thinks NBC and Leno will be just fine, by the way), Joy discussed the brou-ha-ha with her panel, which consisted of me, Rachelle Carson of "Living With Ed" (her show with husband Ed Begley) and comedian-actor-musician-pop-culture-expert Hal Sparks, who made me crack up on the air with a lube joke. Well done, Hal. Lube jokes are never rendered obsolete by breaking news stories. (more...)

"My name is Conan O'Brien, and I am just three days away from the biggest drinking binge in history." Conan O'Brien has taken to opening his monologues with self-deprecating references making light of his situation — that is to say, the situation of being kicked out of the Tonight Show after just seven months in specific violation of his contract that he signed five years ago thinking Jay Leno was retiring but instead NBC gave Leno a 10 p.m. show that tanked which screwed up Conan's lead-in and caused an affiliate revolt which meant The Jay Leno Show had to be canceled which led to NBC's brilliant plan to give him a show at 11:35 that would bump The Tonight Show back a half hour which essentially meant giving him back the Tonight Show which Conan refused to do so he's out and now Jay Leno is taking back the Tonight Show which was the one thing that Conan's contract was meant to protect against. Yes, that situation. (more...)

video Jeff Zucker was on Charlie Rose last night, somewhere between Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien on the clock — though clearly not between them in allegiance. Lest anyone think that an 11th hour reprieve for Conan is possible — dressing in orange for rallies can only do so much — It seems clear that Zucker has moved on. (more...)

The New York Times, in its cover story, has a hell of a good time painting Jeff Zucker into a corner. To be fair, he doesn't help himself by blaming the media spotlight for his current predicament. When he tells the Times that people today like a "soap opera" he must somehow miss the irony of the fact that NBC (and MSNBC, CNBC and BRAVO) all traffic in "soap operas" of one sort or another. But never mind that - even if Zucker is wearing the black hat in all this - the blame for NBC's predicament goes back to the GE management, and a fundamental lack of understanding of the evolution of the media business. (more...)

Remember 2004? Could it be that it was all so simple then? Or has time rewritten every line? Yes, yes and yes. Back then, it was very simple — Conan O'Brien was taking over the Tonight Show from Jay Leno in 2009. Changing of the guard. Passing of the torch. Handing down a treasure from generation to generation. Ah yes. It made all sorts of sense — then. Fast forward to now. Now, it makes a different sort of sense. Then, the Tonight Show aired at 11:35 p.m. after local news that enjoyed a healthy lead in from various 10 p.m. dramas. There was no such thing as online video and Tivo was still what the kids were calling "newfangled." Now, networks are watching the cash drain from their bottom line in a splintering media universe and no longer have the time, patience or money to let a show "find its voice." Oh, and contracts feel...different 5 years later. But — remember then? (more...)

Wow, the early days of this week seem like a Disney movie compared with the ugliness that's broken out in the late-night comedy wars. Before, they were topical jokes blaming one common corporate villain; now, it's everyone taking sides with Conan and Conan taking jabs at Leno, NBC insiders dropping nuggets like "Conan is playing right into our hands because we wanted him out, anyway" and Jeff Zucker supposedly breathing fire and acting like Voldemort. And tonight, as the cherry on top, Leno pushed back with his own pointed digs at Conan. (more...)

Last night's Tonight Show contained arguably the sharpest jabs by Conan O'Brien at his employer - and Jay Leno. How long can this last? If reports are true, it may be all over by next week. But what are the implications for O'Brien and NBC? (more...)

Throughout the recent sturm and drang surrounding the NBC late night drama, the one consistent takeaway is that this is all the fault of NBC Chief Jeff Zucker. And while that may or may not be true, the idea of moving Jay Leno to the 10pm time slot wasn't always seen as the disastrous move that is now. In fact, many television critics hailed Zucker for "the coup" of keeping Leno when this move was announced. Let's take a look at what critics said at the time, and compare it to their thoughts now. Fun! Right? (more...)

It's pretty obvious that the comedy world is Team Conan. David Letterman, yes, but also Jimmy Kimmel, Patton Oswalt, NBC stars, the Internet — and few have come out in support for Jay Leno (Paul Reiser, Kevin Smith, weakly from Jerry Seinfeld). (more...)

video As he has all week, David Letterman took obvious delight in ripping NBC and its late night situation on his CBS Late Show. But last night he went specific - taking aim at NBCU President Jeff Zucker and other "idiot" NBC executives. (more...)

Media critics are, among other things, a spiteful and jealous lot. Covering programming decisions made by TV execs lends itself to actions and attitudes most similar to the worst type of sports fans -- taking for granted any successful or smart decision, while relishing the chance to boo every bad play or mistake. (more...)

video There is no love lost between NBC and Fox News, best evidenced by the following clip of Bill O'Reilly and guest Bernie Goldberg taking great joy in the recent late night programming decisions at NBC involving Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. Not only do they take repeated shots at NBC Chief Jeff Zucker, but they make the worst insult of all - they compare him to, gasp, Barack Obama! (more...)

developing As has been rumored for awhile, Comcast and GE announced this morning they were forming a joint venture. Comcast would own 51%, GE would own 49%, Comcast would manage and the venture consists of NBCU businesses, Comcasts's cable networks and certain digital properties, among other things. (more...)

Reuters is reporting that according to sources Comcast Corp and General Electric Co have agreed to make current NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker the head of their new proposed joint venture, though the "structure of a new board is still being negotiated" and Peter Chernin's role is still up in the air. From the report: (more...)

Yesterday, the news that former News Corp. heavyweight Peter Chernin had been advising Comcast in its bid for NBC Universal sent shockwaves throughout the media world. Before the speculation as to what this means gets out of hand, it's worth bringing up one key data point: both of Chernin's top deputies, Katherine Pope and Dylan Clark, are former NBC/Uni execs. (more...)

Howard Kurtz reports in today's Washington Post that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel pressured the corporate CEO's of the parent companies of TV networks to run Obama's press conference during prime time, instead of communicating directly with the network heads themselves. Bob Iger (CEO of ABC's parent company Disney), Jeffrey Immlet (CEO of NBC's parent company GE), and Les Moonves (CEO of CBS, which includes CBS Network among other media outlets) all received calls from Emanuel in a plea to broadcast President Obama's recent health care focused press conference, despite the hit their networks might take in the ratings. (more...)

Welcome to Mediaite, the website of and about the media. It’s my hope that after checking out the site you will see this as a unique property that will quickly become the must-read for anyone interested in media, the business of it and the personalities behind it. We have assembled some of the most respected and engaging media writers in the country as well as dynamic features including a media influence index and a job board that can assist media professionals, even those seeking new careers. For me, this site is the manifestation of a vision I have had for many years. (more...)