Jeff Zucker Plants Story He is Talking with ESPN
/CNN president and one of FTVLive's Worst people in TV Jeff Zucker had his people plant the story that he is talking to execs at Disney about the top job at ESPN.
Despite the fact that Zucker has turned CNN into a joke's punchline,Deadline is reporting that sources close to Zucker say he's chatted with acting ESPN chairman George Bodenheimer about the gig.
Zucker actually started in sports as a researcher for the 1988 Olympics on NBC. That led to a producer job at TODAY where he worked his way up to executive producer. His rise continued at NBC until as president of NBC Entertainment, he moved Jay Leno to 10pm which was a complete debacle. After FTVLive first reported the show's cancellation, Zucker was forced to move Leno back to 11:35p.
Sources at ESPN tell FTVLive that Zucker reached out to ESPN about the gig and it is VERY unlikely that ESPN would give him the job.
Zucker's contract with CNN is up this year and one would think that even CNN would be stupid enough to renew it.
Therefore, Zucker needs to start planting stories like he is wanted at other shops.