Day: December 3, 2010

Jeff Zucker sat back down at the table with Charlie Rose last night for his "exit interview" as CEO of NBC Universal. Rose grilled him for much of the 40 minutes (link to video here), asking him again and again about how he failed with NBC Entertainment, and even though Zucker has described his decisions about Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien with Zucker before, they went through it all again. Why??? That's not me asking. That was Rose. There's some initial discussion about the transition for Comcast to take over NBC Universal and the future of media, Zucker's start in news as a producer on Today, and then after some talk about the difference between being a news guy vs. an entertainment guy — and whether New York City and Hollywood are on the same page, Rose gets back to Jay vs. Conan. From the transcript: CHARLIE ROSE: Here is what is interesting about Bill Carter‚Äôs book, though, is that you had, speaking of gut, you had a feeling that it was not going to work at 11:30 for Conan according to Bill Carter and reflected that. And when you saw it on the air, it confirmed your feeling. And when you saw the bookings, it doubled your anxiety. JEFF ZUCKER: Look, look. CHARLIE ROSE: Look, what, is this what -- JEFF ZUCKER: You know, I think, I think...

Congrats to my friends of The Comic's Comic in Canadian sketch group Picnicface for receiving a 13-episode order this week from The Comedy Network. Here is the statement on the group's site: We expect to begin filming this spring in Halifax. A huge thanks to all our fans for their support, we couldn't have done this without you. And although we're excited for the chance to reach a television audience, this definitely won't be the end of our online presence. THR is reporting that their sketch series will have Mark McKinney of Kids in the Hall as their executive producer and showrunner. Picnicface is based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Nice work,...