NBC

American broadcast television network

This article is about the television and radio network. For the Philippine television network, see Nation Broadcasting Corporation. For other uses, see NBC (disambiguation).

"Peacock Network" redirects here. For the streaming service, see Peacock (streaming service).

Television channel

National Broadcasting Company

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History
Founded	June 19, 1926 (96 years ago) (1926-06-19)
Launched	Radio: November 15, 1926; 96 years ago (1926-11-15) Television: April 30, 1939; 84 years ago (1939-04-30)
Founder	David Sarnoff
Replaced	NBC Radio Network
Links
Website	nbc.com

The National Broadcasting Company

stylized peacock logo, introduced in 1956 to promote the company's innovations in early color broadcasting.^[1]

NBC has twelve owned-and-operated stations and nearly 200 affiliates throughout the United States and its territories, some of which are also available in Canada and Mexico via pay-television providers or in border areas over the air. NBC also maintains brand licensing agreements for international channels in South Korea and Germany.^[2]

History

Main articles: History of NBC and NBC Radio Network

The first and oldest major broadcast network in the United States, NBC was formed in 1926 by the

antitrust

charges. In 1986, control of NBC passed back to GE through its $6.4 billion purchase of RCA. Although retaining NBC, GE immediately closed most RCA's divisions.

In 2003, French media company

30 Rockefeller Plaza, the headquarters of NBC at Rockefeller Center

in New York City

NBC is the home broadcaster of some of the longest-running television series in American history, including the news program Meet the Press (debuted 1947); Today (debuted 1952); The Tonight Show (debuted nationally 1954); Days of Our Lives (debuted 1965); and Saturday Night Live (debuted 1975). All of these programs continue to be on NBC's schedule as of fall 2022. The drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which debuted in 1999, began its 24th season in September 2022 and is currently the longest-running live-action series in American prime-time television history.

Programming

As of 2022^[update], NBC provides 87 hours of regularly scheduled network programming each week. The network provides 22 hours of prime-time programming to affiliated stations Monday through Saturdays from 8:00 p.m.–11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time (7:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m. in all other U.S. time zones) and Sundays from 7:00 p.m.–11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time (6:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m. in all other time zones).

Daytime

News coverage has long been an important part of NBC's operations and public image, dating to the network's radio days. Notable NBC News productions past and present include Today, NBC Nightly News (and its immediate predecessor, the

While NBC has aired a variety of soap operas on its daytime schedule over its history, Days of Our Lives (1965–2022) was the last soap opera on the network when it was taken off the air in 2022 (and moved to the Peacock streaming service). Currently the network only offers NBC News Daily on its afternoon schedule, with affiliates using the rest of the afternoon for syndicated or local programming.

Long-running daytime dramas seen on NBC in the past include The Doctors (1963–1982), Another World (1964–1999), Santa Barbara (1984–1993), and Passions (1999–2007). NBC also aired the final 41⁄2 years of Search for Tomorrow (1982–1986) after that series was initially cancelled by CBS, although many NBC affiliates did not clear the show during its tenure on the network. NBC has also aired numerous short-lived soap operas, including Generations (1989–1991), Sunset Beach (1997–1999), and the two Another World spin-offs, Somerset (1970–1976) and Texas (1980–1982).

Notable daytime game shows that once aired on NBC include

Children's programming has played a part in NBC's programming since its initial roots in television. NBC's first major children's series,

In 1989, NBC premiered Saved by the Bell, a live-action teen sitcom which originated on The Disney Channel the previous year as Good Morning, Miss Bliss (which served as a starring vehicle for Hayley Mills; four cast members from that show were cast in the NBC series as the characters they originally played on Miss Bliss). Saved by the Bell, despite being given bad reviews from television critics, would become one of the most popular teen series in television history as well as the top-rated series on Saturday mornings, dethroning ABC's The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show in its first season.

The success of Saved by the Bell led NBC to remove animated series from its Saturday morning lineup in August 1992 in favor of additional live-action series as part of a new block called

In 2002, NBC entered into an agreement with Discovery Communications to carry educational children's programs from the Discovery Kids cable channel.^[8] Debuting that September, the Discovery Kids on NBC block originally consisted exclusively of live-action series, including reality series Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls (a kid-themed version of the TLC series Trading Spaces); the Emmy-nominated reality game show Endurance, hosted and produced by J. D. Roth (whose production company, 3-Ball Productions, would also produce reality series The Biggest Loser for NBC beginning in 2003); and scripted series such as Strange Days at Blake Holsey High and Scout's Safari. The block later expanded to include some animated series such as Kenny the Shark, Tutenstein and Time Warp Trio.

In May 2006, NBC announced plans to launch a new Saturday morning children's block under the

On March 28, 2012, it was announced that NBC would launch a new Saturday morning preschool block programmed by Sprout (originally jointly owned by NBCUniversal, PBS, Sesame Workshop and Apax Partners, with the former acquiring the other's interests later that year). The block, NBC Kids, premiered on July 7, 2012, replacing the "Qubo on NBC" block.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Specials

NBC holds the broadcast rights to several annual specials and award show telecasts, including the

• The Sound of Music in 2013 (starring Carrie Underwood as Maria Von Trapp)
• Peter Pan in 2014 (starring Allison Williams in the titular role and Christopher Walken as Captain Hook)
• The Wiz in 2015 (starring Queen Latifah as the Wiz, Mary J. Blige as the Wicked Witch and Uzo Aduba as the Good Witch)
• Hairspray in 2016 (starring Ariana Grande as Penny Pingleton, Jennifer Hudson as Motormouth Maybelle, Kristin Chenoweth as Velma von Tussle and Harvey Fierstein as Edna Turnblad, reprising his role in the original Broadway production)
• Jesus Christ Superstar in 2018 (starring John Legend as Jesus Christ, Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene and Alice Cooper as King Herod)^[14]
• Annie Live! in 2021 (starring Taraji P. Henson as Miss Hannigan, Harry Connick Jr. as Daddy Warbucks, Nicole Scherzinger as Grace Farrell and Tituss Burgess as Rooster Hannigan)

From 2003 to 2014, NBC also held rights to two of the three pageants organized by the

Through the years, NBC has produced many in-house programs, in addition to airing content from other producers such as Revue Studios and its successor Universal Television. Notable in-house productions by NBC have included Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, Las Vegas, Crossing Jordan, the Law & Order franchise (begun independently by Universal Television, and became in-house programming after the NBCUniversal deal), The Office and the Chicago franchise.

Stations

NBC has twelve owned-and-operated stations and current and pending affiliation agreements with 223 additional television stations encompassing 50 states, the District of Columbia, six U.S. possessions and two non-U.S. territories (Aruba and Bermuda).^[18][19] The network has a national reach of 88.91% of all households in the United States (or 277,821,345 Americans with at least one television set). Since January 24, 2022, when CBS affiliate WBKB-TV in Alpena, Michigan affiliated its DT2 subchannel with NBC, NBC is, to date, the only major network with an in-market affiliate in every designated market area in the United States.^[20]

Currently, New Jersey is the only U.S. state where NBC does not have a locally licensed affiliate. New Jersey is served by New York City O&O WNBC-TV and Philadelphia O&O WCAU; New Jersey formerly had an in-state affiliate in Atlantic City-based WMGM-TV, which was affiliated with the network from 1955 to 2014. NBC maintains affiliations with low-power stations (broadcasting either in analog or digital) in a few smaller markets, such as Binghamton, New York (WBGH-CD), Jackson, Tennessee (WNBJ-LD) and Juneau, Alaska (KATH-LD), that do not have enough full-power stations to support a standalone affiliate. In some markets, these stations also maintain digital simulcasts on a subchannel of a co-owned/co-managed full-power television station.

Southern New Hampshire receives NBC programming via network-owned WBTS-CD, licensed to serve Nashua; while nominally licensed as a low-power class A station, it transmits a full-power signal under a channel share with the WGBH Educational Foundation and its secondary Boston station WGBX-TV from Needham, Massachusetts, and serves as the NBC station for the entire Boston market. Until 2019, NBC operated a low-powered station in Boston, WBTS-LD (now WYCN-LD), which aimed to serve as its station in that market while using a network of additional full-power stations to cover the market in full (including Merrimack, New Hampshire-licensed Telemundo station WNEU, which transmitted WBTS on a second subchannel); NBC purchased the Nashua station (formerly WYCN-CD) in early 2018 after the FCC spectrum auction, and in 2019 relocated WYCN-LD to Providence, Rhode Island to serve as a Telemundo station for that market.

Currently, outside of the

The most recent episodes of the network's shows are usually made available on NBC.com and Hulu the day after their original broadcast. In addition, NBC.com and certain other partner websites (including Hulu) provide complete back catalogs of most of its current series as well as a limited selection of episodes of classic series from the NBCUniversal Television Distribution program library – including shows not broadcast by NBC during their original runs (including the complete or partial episode catalogs of shows like 30 Rock, The A-Team, Charles in Charge, Emergency!, Knight Rider (both the original series and the short-lived 2008 reboot), Kojak, Miami Vice, The Office, Quantum Leap and Simon & Simon).^[26][27][28]

On February 18, 2015, NBC began providing live programming streams of local NBC stations in select markets, which are only available to authenticated subscribers of participating pay television providers. All eleven NBC-owned-and-operated stations owned by NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations' were the first stations to offer streams of their programming on NBC's website and mobile app, and new affiliation agreements have made a majority of the network's affiliates available through the network's website and app based on a viewer's location. The network's NFL game telecasts were not permitted to be streamed on the service for several years until a change to the league's mobile rights agreement in the 2018 season allowed games to be streamed through network websites and apps.^{[29][30][31][32]}

NBC HD

NBC's master feed is transmitted in 1080i high definition, the native resolution format for NBCUniversal's television properties. However, 19 of its affiliates transmit the network's programming in 720p HD, while four others carry the network feed in 480i standard definition^[18] either due to technical considerations for affiliates of other major networks that carry NBC programming on a digital subchannel or because a primary feed NBC affiliate has not yet upgraded their transmission equipment to allow content to be presented in HD.

NBC's master feed has not fully converted to

with the launch of its simulcast feed, NBC HD, on April 26, 1999, when The Tonight Show became the first HD program to air on the NBC network as well as the first regularly scheduled American network program to be produced and transmitted in high definition. The network gradually converted much of its existing programming from standard-definition to high definition beginning with the 2002–03 season, with select shows among that season's slate of freshmen scripted series being broadcast in HD from their debuts.^[35]

The network completed its conversion to high definition in September 2012, with the launch of NBC Kids, a new Saturday morning children's block programmed by new partial sister network

holiday

specials produced prior to 2005 – such as its annual broadcast of It's a Wonderful Life – which continues to be presented in 4:3 SD, although some have been remastered for HD broadcast).

The network's high-definition programming is broadcast in 5.1 surround sound.

NBCi

NBCi header used from 1999 to 2007.

In 1999, NBC launched NBCi (briefly changing its web address to "www.nbci.com"), a heavily advertised online venture serving as an attempt to launch a web portal. This move saw NBC partner with Xoom.com (not to be confused with the current money transfer service), e-mail.com, AllBusiness.com,^[36] and Snap.com (eventually acquiring all four companies outright; not to be confused with the current-day parent of Snapchat) to launch a multi-faceted internet portal with e-mail, web hosting, community, chat and personalization capabilities, and news content. Subsequently, in April 2000, NBC purchased GlobalBrain, a company specializing in search engines that learned from searches initiated by its users, for $32 million.

The experiment lasted roughly one season; after its failure, NBCi's operations were folded back into NBC.^[37] The NBC Television portion of the website reverted to NBC.com. However, the NBCi website continued in operation as a portal for NBC-branded content (NBCi.com would be redirected to NBCi.msnbc.com), using a co-branded version of InfoSpace to deliver minimal portal content. In mid-2007, NBCi.com began to mirror the main NBC.com website;^[38] NBCi.com was eventually redirected to the NBC.com domain in 2010. Only one legacy of this direction remains in the website of then-O&O WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio (now owned by Nexstar), which continues to use the URL "nbc4i.com".

Logo

Main article: NBC logo

NBC has used a number of logos throughout its history; early logos used by the television and radio networks were similar to the logo of its then-parent company, RCA. Logos used later in NBC's existence incorporated stylized peacock designs, including the current version that has been in use since 1986.

International broadcasts

Canada

NBC network programs can be received throughout most of Canada on cable, satellite and

IPTV providers through certain U.S.-based affiliates of the network (such as WBTS-CD in Boston, KING-TV in Seattle, KBJR-TV in Duluth, Minnesota, WGRZ in Buffalo, New York and WHEC-TV in Rochester, New York). Some programs carried on these stations are subject to simultaneous substitutions, a practice imposed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in which a pay television provider supplants an American station's signal with a feed from a Canadian station/network airing a particular program in the same time slot to protect domestic advertising revenue. Some of these affiliates are also receivable over the air in southern areas of the country located near the Canada–United States border (signal coverage was somewhat reduced after the digital television transition in 2009

due to the lower radiated power required to transmit digital signals).

Europe and the Middle East

NBC no longer exists outside the Americas as a channel in its own right. However, NBC News and MSNBC programs are broadcast for a few hours a day on OSN News, formerly known as

Orbit News in Africa and the Middle East. Sister network CNBC Europe also broadcasts occasional breaking news coverage from MSNBC as well as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. CNBC Europe also broadcast daily airings of NBC Nightly News at 00:30 CET Monday to Fridays.^[39][40]

NBC Super Channel becomes NBC Europe

In 1993, then-NBC parent General Electric acquired Super Channel, relaunching the Pan-European cable network as NBC Super Channel.[41] In 1996, the channel was renamed NBC Europe, but was, from then on, almost always referred to on-air as simply "NBC".

Most of NBC Europe's prime time programming was produced in Europe due to rights restrictions associated with U.S. prime time shows; the channel's weekday late-night schedule after 11:00 p.m. Central European Time, however, featured The Tonight Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Later, which the channel's slogan "Where the Stars Come Out at Night" was based around. Many NBC News programs were broadcast on NBC Europe, including Dateline NBC, Meet the Press and NBC Nightly News, the latter of which was broadcast simultaneously with the initial U.S. telecast. Today was also initially aired live in the afternoons, but was later broadcast instead the following morning on a more than half-day delay.

In 1999, NBC Europe ceased broadcasting in most of Europe outside of Germany; the network was concurrently relaunched as a German-language technology channel aimed at a younger demographic, with the new series NBC GIGA as its flagship program. In 2005, the channel was relaunched again as the free-to-air movie channel Das Vierte which eventually shut down end of 2013 (acquired by Disney, which replaced it with a German version of Disney Channel). GIGA Television was subsequently spun off as a separate digital channel, available on satellite and cable providers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which shut down as a TV station in the end of 2009.

Latin America

Mexico

NBC programming is available in Mexico through free-to-air affiliates in markets located within proximity to the

KVEO/Brownsville, Texas; and KNSD/San Diego), whose signals are readily receivable over-the-air in border areas of northern Mexico. Some U.S.-based border affiliates are also available on subscription television providers throughout the country, including in the Mexico City

area.

Nicaragua

In Nicaragua, cable and satellite providers used to carry either select U.S.-based NBC and Telemundo affiliated stations or the main network feed from NBCUniversal or Telemundo. The main local affiliate stations distributed in Nicaragua were NBC 6 WTVJ, Telemundo 51 WSCV in Miami. In addition to the NBC programming, they are also available by the NBC sister network Telemundo, a Spanish network based in the United States.

In late 2017, NBC affiliates stopped being distributed in Nicaragua and the rest of Central America. This decision coincided with other U.S. affiliated stations from ABC and CBS also being pulled off from the air in the region. This was due to concerns expressed by the broadcasters on broadcasting rights outside their original local coverage area.

Canal de Noticias

In 1993, NBC launched a 24-hour Spanish-language news channel serving Latin America (the second news channel serving that region overall, after Noticias ECO, and the first to broadcast 24 hours a day), Canal de Noticias NBC, which based its news schedule around the "wheel" format conceived at CNN.^[42] The channel, which was headquartered in the offices of the NBC News Channel affiliate news service in Charlotte, North Carolina, employed over 50 journalists to produce, write, anchor and provide technical services. Canal de Noticias NBC shut down in 1999 due to the channel's inability to generate sustainable advertising revenue.

Caribbean

In the Caribbean, many subscription providers carry either select U.S.-based NBC-affiliated stations or the main network feed from NBC O&Os WNBC in New York City or

U.S. Virgin Islands since 2004 on WVGN-LD in Charlotte Amalie (owned by LKK Group), while Telemundo owned-and-operated station WKAQ-TV in San Juan, Puerto Rico

carries the WNBC feed on a digital subchannel.

Bahamas

In the

Bahamas

, NBC programming is available via U.S.-based affiliate stations on domestic cable providers.

Netherlands Antilles

In

PJA-TV

(which brands on-air as "ATV").

Puerto Rico

In Puerto Rico, Telemundo O&O WKAQ-TV carries "NBC Puerto Rico" over their third subchannel, which is effectively a simulcast of WNBC with some local advertising and station identification.

Bermuda

Until it ended operations in 2014, NBC's entire program lineup was carried by VSB-TV, using the Eastern Time Zone feed, though an hour ahead due to its location in the Atlantic Time Zone. Bermuda currently receives NBC service from WTVJ Miami via cable.

Pacific

Guam

In

WSZE in Saipan

.

American Samoa

In American Samoa, NBC was affiliated with KKHJ-LP in Pago Pago^[43] from 2005 to 2012. Cable television providers on the islands carry the network's programming via Seattle affiliate KING-TV.

Federated States of Micronesia

In the Federated States of Micronesia, NBC programming is available on domestic cable providers via Honolulu affiliate KHNL.

Asia

NBC Asia and CNBC Asia

NBC Asia launched in 1994, distributed to India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Pakistan and the Philippines. Like NBC Europe, NBC Asia featured most of NBC's news programs as well as The Tonight Show, Late Night and Saturday Night Live. Like its European counterpart, it was not allowed to broadcast American-produced prime time shows due to existing broadcast agreements with other domestic broadcasters. NBC Asia produced a regional evening news program that aired each weeknight, and occasionally simulcast some programs from CNBC Asia and MSNBC. NBC also operated NBC Super Sports, a 24-hour channel devoted to televising sporting events.

In July 1998, NBC Asia was replaced by a regional version of the

National Geographic Channel

. As is the case with NBC Europe, CNBC Asia broadcasts select episodes of The Tonight Show and Late Night as well as Meet the Press as part of its weekend schedule, and airs NFL games under the Sunday Night Football brand.

In August 2019, NBC has acquired a minority stake in The News Broadcasting Corporation of India for operating across regional online news properties in local languages like Hindi, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi.

Regional partners

Through regional partners, NBC-produced programs are seen in some countries on the continent. In the

TalkTV airs The Tonight Show and NBC News programs including the weekday and weekend editions of Today, Early Today, Dateline NBC and NBC Nightly News. Solar TV formerly broadcast The Jay Leno Show from 2009 to 2010. In Hong Kong, the English language free-to-air channel TVB Pearl (operated by TVB

) airs live broadcasts of NBC Nightly News, as well as other select NBC programs.

Australia

In Australia, the

Like it Like That" in image promos for their respective summer schedules). The network's Seven News

division has used John Williams-composed "The Mission" (the proprietary theme music for NBC News' flagship programs since 1985) as the theme music for its local and national news programs since the mid-1980s, though re-composed domestically to meet their own branding image. Local newscasts were also titled Seven Nightly News from the mid-1980s until c. 2000. NBC News and Seven News often share news resources, with the former division using Seven's reporters for breaking news coverage and select taped story packages relating to Australian stories and the latter sometimes incorporating NBC News reports into its national bulletins.

Seven also rebroadcasts some of NBC's news and current affairs programming during the early morning hours (usually from 3:00 to 5:00 a.m. local time), including the weekday and weekend editions of Today (which it brands as NBC Today to differentiate it from the unrelated morning program of the same title on the Nine Network), Dateline NBC and Meet the Press.

Criticism and controversies

See also: Today (American TV program) § Controversies, and MSNBC controversies

During the Gulf War NBC was criticized for playing a role in the military–industrial–media complex, biased reporting of the war in favor of the Pentagon, having U.S. officials speak about the war which has been called a conflict of interest, calling reports on Iraqi civilian casualties during the war propaganda, reporting in racist manners towards Iraqis, glorifying U.S bombing weapons, and being owned by General Electric which had $2 billion dollars worth of U.S. military contracts during the war and airing segments that glorified military equipment owned by General Electric which was seen as a conflict of interest.^[44]

In March and April 2019, the

Huffington Post and Wired reported that NBC had paid a firm to improve its reputation by lobbying for changes to the Wikipedia articles on NBC, Nextdoor and several others.^[45][46]

The NBC television network has been accused

non-disclosure agreements. This may have exposed the company to pressure from Harvey Weinstein to delay or terminate reporting on Weinstein's criminal abuse of many women.^[48][49]

Presidents of NBC Entertainment

Executive	Term	Position
Sylvester Weaver	1953–1955	Weaver was hired by NBC in 1949, to help challenge CBS's rating lead. While at NBC, Weaver established many operating practices that became standard for network television; he introduced the practice of networks producing their own television programs and selling advertising time during the broadcasts. Prior to this, advertising agencies usually developed each show for a particular client. Because commercial slots could now more easily be sold to more than one corporate sponsor for each program, a single advertiser pulling out of a program would not necessarily threaten it. Weaver also created several series for the network, Today (in 1952), Tonight Starring Steve Allen (in 1954, the first program in the Tonight Show franchise), Home (1954) and Wide Wide World (1955). Weaver strongly believed that broadcasting should educate as well as entertain, and required NBC shows to typically include at least one sophisticated cultural reference or performance per installment – including a segment of a Giuseppe Verdi opera adapted in the comedic style of Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca's groundbreaking Your Show of Shows. Weaver did not ignore NBC Radio and gave it a shot in the arm in 1955, at a time when network radio was dying and giving way to television, when he developed NBC Monitor, a weekend-long magazine-style block featuring an array of news, music, comedy, drama and sports, with rotating advertisers and some of the most memorable names in broadcast journalism, entertainment and sports that ran until 1975 (20 years after Weaver's departure). Weaver departed shortly afterward, following disputes with NBC chairman David Sarnoff, who believed that his ideas were either too expensive or too highbrow for company tastes. His respective successors, Robert Sarnoff and Robert Kintner standardized the network's programming practices with far less of the ambitiousness that characterized the Weaver years.
Robert E. Kintner	1958–1966	Kintner was appointed president in 1958; his tenure at NBC was marked by his aggressive effort to push the network's news division past CBS News in ratings and prestige. The news division was given more money, leading it to gain additional resources to provide coverage, notably of the 1960 Presidential election campaign, and led the Huntley-Brinkley Report to prominence among the network news programs.
Julian Goodman	1966–1974	Goodman, who joined NBC in 1966, helped establish Chet Huntley and David Brinkley as a well-known anchor team. While working at NBC, he negotiated a $1 million deal to retain Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show.
Herbert Schlosser	1974–1978	After Johnny Carson announced he wanted to cancel the weekend editions of The Tonight Show in order to instead have repeats of it aired on weeknights,[50] Schlosser approached his vice president of late-night programming, Dick Ebersol, and asked him to create a show to fill the Saturday nighttime slot. At the suggestion of Paramount Pictures executive Barry Diller, Schlosser and Ebersol then approached Lorne Michaels. Over the next three weeks, Ebersol and Michaels developed the latter's idea for a variety show featuring high-concept comedy sketches, political satire, and music performances. By 1975 Michaels had assembled a talented cast, including Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Michael O'Donoghue, Gilda Radner, and George Coe. The show was originally called NBC's Saturday Night because Saturday Night Live was in use by a program on the rival network ABC that was hosted by its sportscaster Howard Cosell. NBC purchased the rights to the name in 1976 and officially adopted the new title on March 26, 1977. Saturday Night Live remains on the air to this day.
Fred Silverman	1978–1981	Although Silverman developed many successful shows during his tenure at ABC, he left that network to become president and CEO of NBC in 1978. His three-year tenure at the network proved to be a difficult period for the network, marked by several high-profile failures such as Hello, Larry, Pink Lady and Jeff, Supertrain and the a revival of The Flintstones . In addition, Silverman revitalized the NBC News division, helping Today and NBC Nightly News achieve parity with their competition for the first time in years; and created a new FM radio division with competitive stations in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. During his NBC tenure, Silverman also brought in an entirely new divisional and corporate management team, which remained in place long after Silverman's departure (among this group was Brandon Tartikoff, who as President of Entertainment, would help get NBC back on top by 1985). Silverman also reintroduced the peacock as NBC's corporate logo in 1979.
Brandon Tartikoff	1981–1991	Tartikoff was hired as a program executive at ABC in 1976. He joined NBC the following year, after being hired by Dick Ebersol to direct comedy programs for the network. Tartikoff took over as president of NBC's entertainment division in 1981, crow in. Love and Kisses, Michael J. Fox", which Tartikoff kept in his office for the rest of his career. Johnny Carson broke the news of his retirement in February 1991 to Tartikoff during a lunch meeting at the Grille in Beverly Hills. Tartikoff and chairman Bob Wright were the only ones who knew of the planned retirement before it was made public days later.[55] Tartikoff wrote in his memoirs that his biggest professional regret was cancelling the series Buffalo Bill, which he later went on to include in a fantasy "dream schedule" created for a TV Guide article that detailed his idea of "The Greatest Network Ever".
Warren Littlefield	1991–1998	Littlefield helped develop Cheers, The Cosby Show and The Golden Girls as senior, and later, executive vice president of NBC Entertainment under Brandon Tartikoff, of whom Littlefield was his protégé. During his tenure as president of NBC, Littlefield oversaw the creation of many hit shows during the 1990s such as Seinfeld, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Wings, Blossom, Law & Order, Mad About You, Sisters, Frasier, Friends, ER, Homicide: Life on the Street, Caroline in the City, NewsRadio, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Suddenly Susan, Just Shoot Me!, Will & Grace and The West Wing.
Scott Sassa	1998–1999	Sassa joined NBC in September 1997 as president of the NBC Television Stations division, where he was responsible for overseeing the operation of NBC's then 13 owned-and-operated stations.[60] In October 1998, Sassa became president of NBC Entertainment, lasting in that position for eight months until he was reassigned to NBC's West Coast division in May 1999, where, as its president, he oversaw NBC's entertainment-related businesses.[61] Sassa made the transition to that position after working alongside his predecessor, Don Ohlmeyer. During this time, he oversaw the development and production of NBC's new prime time series, including such shows as The West Wing, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Fear Factor. Under Sassa, NBC rated as the No. 1 network for three out of four seasons.
Garth Ancier	1999–2000	Ancier, who also worked as a television producer (most notably, serving as executive producer of tabloid talk show Ricki Lake ) prior to joining the network, was named President of NBC Entertainment in 1999.
Jeff Zucker	2000–2004	Zucker was named President of NBC Entertainment in 2000, succeeding Garth Ancier. NBC Universal Television Group. Zucker's responsibilities, which already included NBC's cable channels, were expanded to include oversight of television production as well as USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel and Trio. Following his promotion, NBC slid from first place to fourth in the ratings. Shows that Zucker championed such as animated series Father of the Pride and the Friends spinoff Joey floundered.[63]
Kevin Reilly	2004–2007	Reilly was appointed President of Entertainment in May 2004. Having begun his career at NBC Entertainment almost two decades earlier, he returned to the network in the fall of 2003 as President of Primetime Development. Early in his NBC career, Reilly supervised Law & Order in its first season and helped develop ER. After his first stint at NBC, Reilly became President of Brad Grey Television, the television production arm of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, in 1994. He was responsible for the development of the pilot for The Sopranos, and NBC sitcoms Just Shoot Me! and NewsRadio. Reilly's vocal support of The Office helped it survive its first season, despite it suffering from low ratings.[64] Shows developed under Reilly included My Name Is Earl, Heroes, 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights.[65] Although he signed a new three-year contract with NBC in February 2007, Reilly was terminated as president in late May 2007.[66] Approximately one month later, he joined Fox as its President of Entertainment.
Ben Silverman	2007–2009	Silverman and Marc Graboff were appointed co-chairmen of NBC Entertainment in 2007, succeeding Kevin Reilly. That year, Silverman became the first producer since The 101 while NBC would re-air the episodes later in the season.[69]
Jeff Gaspin	2009–2010	Gaspin first joined NBC in the early 1980s, as part of its associates program, after failing to find any jobs in finance on NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution .
Robert Greenblatt	2011–2018	Greenblatt succeeded Jeff Gaspin in January 2011 after Comcast took control of NBCUniversal. Under Greenblatt's direction, NBC saw major successes with the Chicago series franchise, This Is Us, the revival of Will & Grace, and several live musical productions. The success of many of his programs led NBC to take over CBS as the No. 1 network during the 2017–18 television season for the first time in sixteen years. Greenblatt departed NBC in September 2018.[71][72]
George Cheeks & Paul Telegdy	2018–2020	Cheeks and Telegdy succeeded Robert Greenblatt in September 2018, following Greenblatt's departure.[73] Cheeks moved to CBS in January 2020.[74] Telegdy left in August 2020 after accusations of racism.[75]
Jeff Shell	2020–2023	Shell is also the CEO of NBCUniversal until he was fired due to a scandal.

Home video

NBC Home Video

Parent

NBC

NBC Home Video was formed in 1981 by NBC. The company's videos were distributed by

Trimark Home Video

in 1997. It was folded into Trimark Home Video in 2000.

See also

• Lists of NBC television affiliates
• List of NBC personalities
• NBC pages
• NBC Olympic broadcasts

Notes

1. ^ formerly a company known as National Broadcasting Company, Inc. prior to the 2004 merger with Universal

References

Further reading

• Hilmes, Michele (2007). NBC: America's Network. University of California Press.
  ISBN 9780520250819
  .
• Robinson, Marc (2002). Brought to You in Living Color: 75 Years of Great Moments in Television and Radio from NBC. Wiley.
  ISBN 9780471090168
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to NBC.

• Official website
• Official History and Milestones for NBC Universal
• Museum of Broadcast Communications – NBC History
• NBC Logo Creation History
• Archive of NBC office files from 1921–1955 (1.2 million paper documents & 3,100 audio recordings)