Who

Jeff Zucker became the CEO of NBC Universal in May 2007.

Backstory

Jeff Zucker originally planned to become a lawyer. But when Harvard Law rejected his application, he went into TV instead, taking a job as a researcher at NBC Sports. He headed off to Seoul to work on the network's coverage of the 1988 Olympic games, then a year later joined the Today show, where he made such an impression that in December 1991, at the tender age of 26, he was promoted to executive producer. Zucker's nine-year stint at Today earned him billing as the network's golden boy as the show became a ratings and ad revenue juggernaut, responsible for generating more than $300 million a year for NBC.

Zucker moved up the ladder in 2000 when he replaced Garth Ancier as the president of NBC Entertainment, and was handed responsibility for the programming lineup for the then-dominant network. Zucker's efforts as chief programmer yielded decidedly mixed results: Although he managed to finagle a couple of extra seasons out of successful shows that preceded him like Friends (those million-dollar-an-episode paychecks certainly helped persuade the cast), and had some success with early reality shows like Fear Factor and The Apprentice, he failed to generate the kind of big hits that had made NBC such a powerhouse in the late '90s, like Seinfeld, Will & Grace, and ER. By 2004, NBC had slipped from first to last in the primetime ratings race, a huge embarrassment for the former "Must See TV" powerhouse.

Regardless, the precocious exec's rise through the ranks was hardly slowed. Zucker managed to fall upward in 2005, when he was placed in charge of the NBC Universal Television Group and given oversight over NBC's broader universe of TV properties, including Bravo, USA, Telemundo, and SciFi. Following the departure of NBC's longtime CEO and chairman Bob Wright in May 2007, Zucker ascended the ladder once again when he was named CEO of NBC Universal. He now reports to Jeff Immelt, the CEO of GE.

Of note

NBC's struggles and Zucker's uncanny ability to weather potentially career-killing missteps hasn't gone unnoticed. He's inspired plenty of ire in the industry and a good deal of critical press. (Few execs, after all, generate enough controversy to warrant a hate site: firejeffzucker.com.) But GE has kept faith in their hyper-ambitious employee, and he's now charged with the daunting task of lifting NBC out of the big hole in which it finds itself.

Although there's been some good news—the network has had a few hits like Heroes and several cable properties (like Bravo and USA) are performing strongly—the primetime lineup remains weak. In an attempt to turn around the dearth of hits, in May 2007 Zucker canned NBC Entertainment president (and former protégé) Kevin Reilly, replacing him with boy wonder Ben Silverman and former NBC Uni West Coast chief Marc Graboff. There are plenty of headaches on the news front, too. Although MSNBC is profitable, it remains in third-place behind Fox News and CNN, and NBC News's flagship Nightly News with Brian Williams has ceded ground to ABC's Charlie Gibson over the past year. Fortunately, the picture is a bit brighter over at CNBC: Although execs were nervous about Rupert Murdoch's decision to launch Fox Business Channel, it hasn't made a dent in CNBC's ratings.

Then there's the online world to worry about. Over the past couple of years, NBC has been struggling to make sense of the new digital marketplace: It cut a deal with Apple to make NBC shows available on iTunes, only to spar with the company and back out of the deal; a similar scenario played out between NBC and YouTube. Nowadays NBC is focused on Hulu.com, a site it launched in partnership with News Corp. The online video site has yet to gain much traction, though, and has faced a good deal of negative press.

With its NBC flagship stalling and its digital plans in disarray, Zucker is charging ahead with his plans to beef up the company's cable portfolio. He negotiated a deal with Gerry Laybourne to acquire Oxygen for $925 million in 2007. And, in his biggest acquisition since taking over as CEO, in July 2008 Zucker teamed up with Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group to buy the Weather Channel from Landmark Communications for just under $3.5 billion.

On the job

Zucker divides his time between New York and Burbank. In New York, his senior team includes Steve Capus, the president of NBC News; Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Sports; CNBC chief Mark Hoffman; and top mouthpiece Cory Shield. In LA, Zucker's team includes Jeff Gaspin, the former president of Bravo who now heads up NBC's cable properties; film vet Ron Meyer, who runs Universal Studios; and Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff, the co-chairs of NBC's entertainment division.

Medical file

Zucker developed colon cancer at the age of 31 and had surgery to have part of his colon removed. The cancer returned when he was 34, but he says he's now healthy and in remission.

Personal

Zucker married Caryn Nathanson, a former NBC employee and Saturday Night Live staffer, in 1996. In 2006, the family sold their 16-room duplex on Central Park West for $15.7 million and moved to the East side, purchasing the former apartment of Kitty Carlisle Hart on East 64th Street for $12.4 million. They also own a shingle-style cottage in East Hampton.

True story

Conan O'Brien will be Zucker's big late-night star once he succeeds Jay Leno in 2009, but the two have a history that dates to their college days. At Harvard in the mid-1980s, Zucker was the president of the Crimson, while O'Brien was in charge of the humor mag, the Lampoon. As part of a longstanding rivalry between the two, O'Brien managed to have the entire print run of the Crimson stolen one morning before it could be distributed. Zucker responded by calling the cops and O'Brien was led out in handcuffs.