John Cook's upcoming Radar Magazine piece about
Jeff Zucker is a must-read. It includes this behind-the-scenes play-by-play of
Neal Shapiro's prolonged exit:
| | The nominal reason for his ouster was the sagging ratings of the Today show, the network’s most lucrative franchise. In the face of surging competition from ABC’s Good Morning America, Today had lost its way, and Shapiro seemed incapable of stemming the flow of viewers. As rumors flew all spring that he was going to be sacked, Shapiro had finally gone to Zucker’s office in May to talk it over. According to a source familiar with the exchange, Zucker informed Shapiro that his contract, which ran through 2006, would not be renewed. Days later, quoting two unnamed senior executives, the New York Times reported that Shapiro had quit.
 Of course, Shapiro had done no such thing, and since Zucker had not lined up a replacement, three and a half excruciating months would pass before Shapiro left. During that time NBC News was left essentially leaderless. “Jeff took a situation and clearly made it much worse,” complains an NBC News correspondent. “It emasculated the news division. This was Jeff losing his temper and leaking news of Neal’s demise before it happened.”
Throughout his career Zucker had deftly managed his profile in the media, and inside NBC it was widely believed that he was the source of the leak. “The joke was always that both Neal and Jeff spent their days on the phone with reporters,” says the NBC correspondent. “But Neal was talking to reporters who worked for him, and Jeff was talking to reporters who worked for the New York Times.”
According to a well-placed source, NBC Universal CEO Bob Wright was alarmed by Zucker’s clumsy handling of the news division transition. “It was messy, and people were shaking their heads,” says an NBC News staffer.
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