Jeff Zucker

Jeffrey Adam Zucker<ref name="nyt-wedding"/> (born April 9, 1965)<ref name=MazelTov>Template:Cite book</ref> is an American businessman and media executive. Zucker was the president of CNN Worldwide from 2013 to 2022.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He oversaw CNN, CNN International, HLN, and CNN Digital.<ref>CNN: Jeff Zucker profile Template:Webarchive; accessed January 16, 2015</ref><ref name="resign">Template:Cite news</ref> He was previously CEO of NBCUniversal.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Early life and education

Jeffrey Adam Zucker was born on April 9, 1965, into a Jewish family<ref name=StarsOfDavid>"Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish" By Abigail Pogrebi Template:Webarchive pg. 367|Zucker grew up in Miami where he was bar mitzvah and confirmed at Temple Israel - "the most Reform synagogue in South Florida." His family's weekly tradition was Hebrew school and football....He's currently a member of Temple Emanu-El in New York City.</ref><ref>Jewish Virtual Library: "Jeff Zucker" Template:Webarchive retrieved March 10, 2015</ref> in Homestead, Florida, near Miami, on April 9, 1965.<ref name="northmiami">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His father, Matthew Zucker, was a cardiologist, and his mother, Arline, was a school teacher.<ref name="nyt-wedding">Template:Cite news</ref>

He was a captain of the North Miami Senior High School tennis team,<ref name="northmiami"/> editor of the school paper, and a teenage freelance reporter ("stringer") for The Miami Herald.<ref name="harvardcrimson">Template:Cite news</ref> Zucker also was president of his sophomore, junior, and senior classes,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> running on the slogan "The little man with the big ideas."<ref name=Grove>Template:Cite news</ref> He graduated from North Miami Senior High School in 1982.<ref name="northmiami"/> Before college, he took part in Northwestern University's National High School Institute program for journalism.<ref name="harvardcrimson"/> Zucker went on to Harvard University. He was president of the school newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, during his senior year. As such, he encouraged the Crimson's decades-old prank rivalry with the Harvard Lampoon, then headed by future NBC employee Conan O'Brien, which culminated in Zucker having O’Brien arrested.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Zucker graduated from Harvard in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts in American history.<ref name="CNN Bio">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Career

NBC and NBCUniversal

Early career

When he was not admitted to Harvard Law School, he began working at NBC by accepting an internship at the 1988 Summer Olympics.<ref name="fiu">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1989, he was a field producer for Today, and at 26 he became its executive producer in 1992.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He introduced the program's trademark outdoor rock concert series and was in charge as Today moved to the "window on the world" Studio 1A in Rockefeller Plaza in 1994. He is credited with managing the show during its most successful years and launching it into its 16 years of ratings dominance.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

President (2000–2005)

In 2000, he was named NBC Entertainment's president.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A 2004 BusinessWeek Profile stated that "During that time he oversaw NBC's entire entertainment schedule. He kept the network ahead of the pack by airing the gross out show Fear Factor, negotiating for the cast of the hit series Friends to take the series up to a tenth season, and signing Donald Trump for the reality show The Apprentice. He is credited with the idea to extend Friends episodes by 10 minutes and convinced the cast to extend their contracts by two years. The Friends era was one of the most profitable ever for NBC.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The Zucker era produced a spike in operating earnings for NBC, from $532 million the year he took over to $870 million in 2003."<ref name="Grove"/>

Zucker introduced Las Vegas, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Scrubs. He originated the idea of airing "Supersized" (longer than the standard 30-minute slot) episodes of NBC's comedies and aggressively programming in the summer months as cable networks began to draw away viewers with original programming from the network's rerun-filled summer slate. Bravo changed its programming direction towards reality television, while the newly acquired Spanish network Telemundo was positioned to be more competitive with leading network Univision.

In December 2003, Zucker became president of NBC's Entertainment, News & Cable Group as well.

Following the merger with French media empire Vivendi Universal, he became president of the newly formed NBC Universal Television Group in May 2004. Vivendi Universal had acquired Fox Interactive a year earlier in 2003. During Zucker's tenure, shows that he championed such as Father of the Pride and the Friends spinoff Joey were considered failures.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Chief Executive Officer of NBC Universal Television Group

On December 15, 2005, Zucker was promoted by NBC Universal to Chief Executive Officer of NBC Universal Television Group behind Robert Charles Wright, vice chairman of General Electric and chairman & CEO of NBC Universal.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Zucker was responsible for all programming across the company's television properties, including network, news, cable, sports and Olympics. His responsibilities also included the company's studio operations and global distribution efforts.

President and CEO of NBC Universal

Template:Sister project On February 6, 2007, Zucker became president and CEO of NBC Universal.

In 2010, in response to a public controversy over the network's reported rescheduling of late-night hosts Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien, Los Angeles Times reporters Meg James and Matea Gold wrote that Zucker's tenure had led to "a spectacular fall by the country's premier television network" and dubbed the intra-network feud and subsequent public relations fallout "one of the biggest debacles in television history".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Under Zucker NBC fell from being the number one rated network to the lowest rated of the four broadcast networks and was occasionally being beaten in the ratings by programming on some of the more popular cable channels.

Days later, The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote that in Hollywood "there has been a single topic of discussion: How does Jeff Zucker keep rising and rising while the fortunes of NBC keep falling and falling? ...many in the Hollywood community have always regarded him as ...a network Napoleon who never bothered to learn about developing shows and managing talent." She explained that Zucker "is a master at managing up with bosses and calculating cost-per-hour benefits, but even though he made money on cable shows, he could not program the network to save his life."<ref name=Dowd>Template:Cite news</ref>

Dowd also reported that an unnamed "honcho at another network" stated that "Zucker is a case study in the most destructive media executive ever to exist... You'd have to tell me who else has taken a once-great network and literally destroyed it."<ref name=Dowd/>

On June 2, 2010, the New York Post reported that Zucker would be paid between $30 million and $40 million to leave NBC Universal shortly after Comcast completed its 51% acquisition in the company.<ref name=NYPost>Template:Cite news</ref>

Katie producer

Zucker worked with fellow NBC News alum, former Today host Katie Couric, producing her daytime talk show for Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Katie.<ref name="Alex Ben Block">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, Zucker left the show to be the president of CNN Worldwide.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Career at WarnerMedia

President of CNN Worldwide

Zucker became president of CNN Worldwide on January 1, 2013. His appointment was widely welcomed by the network and its anchors. Anderson Cooper told colleagues that Zucker was "the first CNN president to actually watch CNN".<ref name="Gabriel Sherman">Template:Cite news</ref> In December 2013, Zucker stated that his goal for the channel was to offer an "attitude and a take" to viewers, with a larger focus on reality-style documentary series (expanding upon the success of its documentary acquisition Blackfish, and new series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown). Zucker explained that he wanted CNN to appeal more to regular viewers of factual networks (such as A&E, Discovery, and History), and make larger investments into the network's digital properties.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

With the 2014 cancellation of Piers Morgan Live, CNN experimented with airing factual programming in primetime as an alternative, with Zucker stating that it would cater to younger demographics than pundit-oriented programs. However, Zucker still insisted that news remained CNN's first priority, and that these programs could be preempted for continuing coverage of breaking news events when needed.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 2014 saw an increase in daytime and primetime viewership of CNN; by October 2014, CNN had overtaken MSNBC in primetime key demographic viewership, placing second behind Fox News.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="nytimes.com">Template:Cite news</ref>

During the 2016 presidential election campaign, a large focus was placed upon on-air debates between partisan pundits surrounding issues relating to the candidates (including, in particular, Republican candidate Donald Trump). In an interview with The New York Times, Zucker stated that aspects of its election coverage were influenced by sports channels (with the Times citing, specifically, debates between pundits reminiscent of shows such as ESPN's First Take, and large outdoor "pre-game" shows for the presidential debates), explaining that "the idea that politics is sport is undeniable, and we understood that and approached it that way."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2016, CNN reached a monthly average of 105 million unique visitors to its web and mobile properties.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Leaked secret recordings of conversations between Zucker and Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen made in March 2016 show that Zucker wanted to do a weekly show with Trump and offered debate advice to Trump.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On February 2, 2021, Zucker announced he would step down at the end of the year.<ref name=JeffCNN>Template:Cite news</ref> In August 2021, however, it was reported that he did not plan to leave until the completion of the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

WarnerMedia News & Sports

In March 2019, CNN parent WarnerMedia announced a reorganization in which Zucker would become chairman of the company's news and sports division, overseeing Turner Sports, Bleacher Report and AT&T SportsNet, in addition to maintaining his role as head of CNN.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Resignation

On February 2, 2022, Zucker resigned from CNN. In his resignation letter, Zucker acknowledged that he did not disclose a consensual relationship he had with CNN's Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Allison Gollust, when it began.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The relationship was made public in early January 2022 during the network's investigation into Chris Cuomo.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Following his resignation from CNN, Zucker also resigned from his position as chief of WarnerMedia News & Sports.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

RedBird IMI

In December 2022, Zucker was named an executive with Redbird IMI, a consortium with majority funding from Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President of the UAE.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> The consortium is a joint venture between Gerry Cardinale's RedBird Capital Partners and International Media Investments, a media investment fund backed by the United Arab Emirates.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The position also includes an active role in the XFL, a professional football league partially owned by RedBird.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The consortium's planned purchase of The Telegraph, a prominent British newspaper, has caused controversy in the United Kingdom, as concerns were raised that the newspaper would be coming under the control of an autocratic state.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In April 2024, RedBird confirmed it would withdraw its takeover plans, stating they were "no longer feasible".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal life

In 1996, Zucker married Caryn Stephanie Nathanson, then a supervisor for Saturday Night Live,<ref name="nyt-wedding"/> with whom he has four children; the two divorced in 2017.<ref>‘Joined at the Hip’: Jeff Zucker's Relationship With a Top CNN Executive. Template:Webarchive In: New York Times, 3 February 2022.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Diagnosed in 1996 and 1999 with colon cancer, Zucker successfully underwent surgery twice and chemotherapy after the first surgery.<ref name=Grove/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In July 2018, Zucker took a six-week leave of absence from CNN to recover from heart surgery.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Zucker was an executive in residence at Columbia Business School.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Further reading

• "How Jeff Zucker Is Seeking to Reshape CNN," by Emily Steel, 2014 Template:Webarchive
• Will Somebody Please Save NBC? Template:Webarchive by the New York Magazine
• Zucker named new President of CNN Worldwide Template:Webarchive

External links

• CNN profile
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