NBC revenues drop, too

About a year and a half ago, I was wondering aloud to some TV critic pals of mine how it was that Jeff Zucker still had a job.

The then-president of NBC Entertainment, now-president of the NBC Universal Television Group had, since taking over as the network's top programmer in 2000, been responsible for a grand total of zero hit shows. None. Zip. Nada.

Oh, if you read his network biography you'll see he takes credit for "Fear Factor," and it's true it debuted under his administration. But it was ordered by his predecessor.

Since then, the only NBC show that qualifies as a genuine hit is "The Apprentice" — a rehash of "Survivor."

Under Zucker's leadership, NBC has had ratings success with what qualifies as TV smoke and mirrors — scheduling stunts, "supersizing" and momentum from aging shows. His greatest accomplishments have come in keeping such shows as "Frasier" and "Friends" on the air for an extra season or two.

But, under Zucker's leadership, NBC has not found a single new hit drama. Not a single new hit sitcom.

As I've noted here before, he's not exactly passionate about television. Thirteen months ago, I wrote, "Zucker . . . might just as well be running the widget division of General Electric instead of the television division. His passion is ratings, profit and stock prices, not programming."

And that, one of my colleagues explained to me, was why Zucker still had a job. These days, when networks are part of huge conglomerates, programmers are evaluated on the bottom line, not the shows they put on the air.

So I find myself once again wondering — why does Jeff Zucker still have a job?

Having gone six years without debuting a hit drama (the last was "The West Wing" in 1999) and seven years without a hit sitcom ("Will & Grace" in 1998), NBC fell on hard times during the 2004-05 TV season. It's hard to be proud as a peacock when you fall from first to fourth in the advertiser-friendly 18-to-49 demographic — which Zucker and his predecessors have been proclaiming as the only thing that matters for the past decade-and-a-half or more.