Jeff Zucker is coming back!
Sources tell me that today’s announcement that CBS News chief Ingrid Cipirian-Matthews is gone probably means one thing: the return of Jeff Zucker.
What’s going on here? Zucker — who ran CNN and NBC and desperately wants to return to power — is partners in real life Jeff Shell, former NBC Universal chairman. Shell is also now partnered with Zucker in Red Bird Capital, a media capital firm that’s been trying to buy something big.
At the same time, Shell is working hand in hand with David Ellison of Skydance. They just bought CBS in their Paramount deal. The deal won’t close until next year, and there’s a waiting period now for Paramaount’s Shari Redstone to find a better deal.
But in all likelihood, Ellison has purchased Paramount. And Shell is advising him. First project: give CBS some pizzazz with Zucker.
Does it matter that Shell and Zucker were each ousted from their previous positions? Not at all. In the post-Trump environment, all bets are off. F. Scott Fitzgerald had it wrong. Americans have second, third, and fourth chapters.
At NBC, Zucker did make The today Show into a massive hit. In prime time, for his cycle, his shows were hits. His CNN experience went south as Fox News rose and rose. Zucker was eventually ushered out over having an interoffice romance. No one much cares about that, id they ever did. It was just an excuse to get him out of CNN.
Will Zucker run just CBS News? Or the whole network? There’s time to work that out. But the media world is abuzz.
more to come…
