In case you missed it, Jeff Zucker defends himself to Charlie Rose over NBC’s Leno/Conan debacle

NBC Universal honcho Jeff Zucker sat down for an exclusive one-on-one chat with Charlie Rose earlier in the week, and it's now up on Hulu.com along with other clips from Rose's PBS talk show. Of course, we know now that tonight is Conan O'Brien's last night as the ill-fated host of NBC's The Tonight Show, and the demise of The Jay Leno Show in primetime is not far behind, with Leno retaking the helm of Tonight on March 1. We had not heard much, if anything, publicly from Zucker about this.

Rose did not ask Zucker about his very first encounter with O'Brien at Harvard, which did not set the best tone (as Zucker had O'Brien arrested when Conan's Harvard Lampoon stole all of the issues of Zucker's paper, the Crimson, as a prank). No. This was a more sobering half-hour in which Rose reiterated all of the problems NBC has had in late-night — as well as the network's overall difficulties languishing in last place. If you want to hear Zucker's take, this is your chance. And if you live outside of America and cannot access Hulu, you can watch the half-hour on Charlie Rose's site.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

View all posts by Sean L. McCarthy →