We get the list started with the 5th worst person in TV news for 2017. 

We head to Bean Town and there we find NBC Boston and NECN News Director Kenny Plotnik‏.

For a decade, Plotnick was the ND at WABC in New York. He was fond of telling people he was the News Director at the number one station in the number one market in the country. 

That is no longer the case. 

He now oversees the last place station in the 7th market and things are not getting better. 

When Plotnick finally got the gig at WABC, a job he had been passed over for a couple of times, he inherited a station that was at the top of their game and was at the top of the ratings. Plotnick was told one piece of advice, "don't fuck it up." 

Basically, WABC is built to run itself. Current News Director Camille Edwards (who just missed making the worst list) went "on leave" over a month ago and WABC has not missed a beat. 

That was Plotnick's job at WABC, just let the station stay on autopilot and don't turn it off.

While at WABC the ratings remained strong while Plotnick's ego grew to a size that many thought was unimaginable. He walked around the newsroom in his ill-fitting suits and tried to lead by intimidation. 

He enjoyed going to the different TV conventions checking out the young women that would "love to come work at WABC." The attention fed his ego and he ate it up.

Staffers say that Plotnick loves spitting out different variations of the word "fuck" in the newsroom as in "What the fuck were you thinking?" "I will fucking fire you!" And "Get the fuck out of my office."

He hired managers that would only see things his way and played huge favorites with the newsroom staff. 

Check out the memo below he sent to the staff in 2007 at WABC. He told them that their kids did not matter at Christmas and that people are expected to work no matter what. Made no difference how long you worked at the station if Kenny told you that you were working, the dictator had spoken. 

Finally, Plotnick was "pushed" out at WABC after his long tyrant act when began to wear on the top brass at ABC. 

He sat out of the business for years, before the phone finally rang. Boston was calling and they wanted Plotnick to bring his New York "magic" to Bean Town and help launch a brand new O&O. 

Problem was, Plotnick had no clue how to do it. He was good at keeping a powerful station that was already No. 1 at the top of the ratings, but he had no clue how to build a station from scratch. 

NBC Boston promised big things and they thought that Kenny Plotnick was the man that was going to help them do that. 

But, NBC Boston has never gotten out of the blocks. The newsroom is full of tension and there are many whispers of unfair treatment of some minorities.  

NBC Boston has not delivered and talk that Plotnick might be put out to pasture one more time. Some think it could as early as after the Feb book. But others fear that the Olympics might boost the ratings and save his job.

He has treated many people badly and there will not be many tears shed when/if he goes.

And that is how and why Kenny Plotnick kicks off the FTVLive Worst list at No. 5. 

Here is that memo we talked about earlier and check back next hour as we get the best list on it's way.