Conan O’Brien must be having a good chuckle right now. Jeff Zucker, the man who engineered his ouster and the chaos surrounding it, was essentially terminated today by NBC and its new owner, Comcast.
Aucker has much conceded to the New York Times this morning that Comcast’s Steve Burke fired him two weeks ago.
The whole O’Brien-Jay Leno catastrophe is laid at the feet of Zucker. Instead of just canceling “The Jay Leno Show,” Zucker put him back at 11:30pm, forced out O’Brien, and caused one of the greatest pr disasters in TV history.
There are other media changes today. Jon Klein, head of CNN, is also out. The network has been gutted and destroyed during his six year run. Eliot Spitzer, who had to resign in disgrace as governor of New York after spending thousands of dollars on hookers, was rewarded by Klein with a new talk show. That’s Klein’s legacy. That, and forcing out Larry King for a Brit, Piers Morgan. The incoming head of CNN, Ken Jautz, will have to figure all of this out now.
Over at the New York Daily News, Orla Healey is out as features editor. She follows editor in chief Martin Dunn, who was either sacked or forced out a couple of months ago.
