All Time Worst Television Network/Channel Executives

[TMC1982 0]

It could either be from the past or present, cable or broadcast. Which major TV executive was the most incompetent at the job, and did the most damage to their respective network's reputation and/or progress (for example, Fred Silverman during his time at NBC in the late 1970s-early 1980s)?

[Crimson G 0]

I wouldn't know who exactly to give it to, but it's gotta be somebody at FOX between the years of (roughly) 2000-2005.

 

-increased and utterly mindless reality programming

-Joe Millionaire

-The Simple Life

-Temptation Island

-promising, failed programs by the boatload

-Andy Richter Controls the Universe

-Arrested Development

-Family Guy (the first time)

-Firefly

-Futurama

-Keen Eddie

-Titus

-Undeclared

-Wonderfalls

-shows ranging terrible-to-good are allowed to stagnate

-24

-Ally McBeal

-Bernie Mac

-Boston Public

-Dark Angel

-King of the Hill (at times)

-Malcolm in the Middle

-The Simpsons

-The X-Files

-terrible ideas capitalizing on fads

-Celebrity Boxing

-The O.C.

-Quintuplets

-That 80's Show

-too much fucking sports programming

-MLB

-NASCAR

-NFL

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Like it or not a lot of what you listed are big money makers for FOX, especially the sports, so that definitely does not qualify him to be the worst exec ever.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I wouldn't know who exactly to give it to, but it's gotta be somebody at FOX between the years of (roughly) 2000-2005.

 

{bunch of bad stuff}

 

All of that is negated by whoever it was getting American Idol so..whatever.

 

My vote goes to whoever thought it was a bright idea to merge the WB and UPN and then break it apart again with MNTV and CW which both suck worse than WB and UPN ever did.

 

shortly behind that is whoever at CBS decided they wanted to be the Crime Broadcasting System.

 

 

[bob_barron 0]

Joe Millionaire actually ranked third its first year on the air

[YourKock'sReallyGreat 0]

I have to nominate who ever ran CBS in the early 1990's. Every show that they had was with someone over the age of 70 and geared towards senior citizens. Golden Girls, Murder She Wrote, Matlock and Dick Van Dykes crime show.

[bob_barron 0]

Golden Girls was on NBC. They did air the short lived Golden Palace in 1992-1993.

 

Matlock never aired on CBS, it was on NBC and then ABC.

 

Also, until it had to face NBC's juggernaut lineup in 1994, Murder...She Wrote was actually a hit show

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

And how can someone not love Sophia?

[YourKock'sReallyGreat 0]

Golden Girls was on NBC. They did air the short lived Golden Palace in 1992-1993.

 

Matlock never aired on CBS, it was on NBC and then ABC.

 

Also, until it had to face NBC's juggernaut lineup in 1994, Murder...She Wrote was actually a hit show

 

 

Yeah I was thinking of Golden Palace where they ran a hotel and Bea Arthur left the show and Cheech Marin came on.

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

Are people basing their choices on whether or not they personally liked the direction of the network, or whether it was a financially disastrous move? Because if it's the latter then some of the responses don't make any sense at all, such as "When CBS became the Crime Broadcasting System". While I personally don't like CBS's reliance on very derivative serial crime dramas, you can't argue it hasn't been a big reason for their financial success.

[Crimson G 0]

Like it or not a lot of what you listed are big money makers for FOX, especially the sports, so that definitely does not qualify him to be the worst exec ever.

 

Some of them may have been moneymakers, but I was looking at the programming of the network as a whole. An increased amount of sporting events requires shows to be shuffled and shelved for months at a time in some cases, which makes it harder for viewers to get into shows that aren't as regularly broadcast as other networks. The scripted shows have become secondary to reality and sports programming, so basically they're swinging for the fences on every pitch.

 

I think I was criticizing FOX during this time mainly for dropping the ball on so much good programming, while continuing to push crap and let once good/popular shows drag on far longer than necessary.

[TMC1982 0]

I wouldn't know who exactly to give it to, but it's gotta be somebody at FOX between the years of (roughly) 2000-2005.

 

{bunch of bad stuff}

 

All of that is negated by whoever it was getting American Idol so..whatever.

 

My vote goes to whoever thought it was a bright idea to merge the WB and UPN and then break it apart again with MNTV and CW which both suck worse than WB and UPN ever did.

 

shortly behind that is whoever at CBS decided they wanted to be the Crime Broadcasting System.

 

Merging the WB and UPN wasn't a bad idea in theory (combining the bests of WB with the bests of UPN). The problem was that CBS and Time Warner were foolish enough to allow Dawn Ostroff run the network.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

He's a film studio executive, not a network executive, but Tom Rothman is a dirty word around my house.

[Darthtiki 0]

Lloyd Braun who was the exec at ABC (when they were 3rd or 4th place in the late 90's-early 00's) and passed on CSI and Survivor.

 

But Jeff Zucker and his boss Jeff Immelt over at NBC take the cake.

 

Care to elaborate why Tom Rothman is a dirty word?

[JST 0]

Don Ohlmeyer for firing Norm MacDonald from Weekend Update.

[DCH 0]

Palmer Cannon was pretty shit.

[TMC1982 0]

Don Ohlmeyer for firing Norm MacDonald from Weekend Update.

 

And allegedly over O.J. fucking Simpson! Don Ohlmeyer was also the genius who thought that it was a great idea to put Dennis Miller in the booth for Monday Night Football. Don't get me wrong, Dennis Miller is a pretty smart and funny guy, but he was an absolutely horrible fit on that show (at least before Tony Kornheiser came around ). Ohlmeyer while he was at NBC, also publically wished that the 1997 World Series end in a clean sweep so that it wouldn't disrupt NBC's entertainment schedule.

[TMC1982 0]

Lloyd Braun who was the exec at ABC (when they were 3rd or 4th place in the late 90's-early 00's) and passed on CSI and Survivor.

 

But Jeff Zucker and his boss Jeff Immelt over at NBC take the cake.

 

Care to elaborate why Tom Rothman is a dirty word?

 

Was Lloyd Braun at ABC during the period in which they were overexposing Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

 

[TMC1982 0]

I have to nominate who ever ran CBS in the early 1990's. Every show that they had was with someone over the age of 70 and geared towards senior citizens. Golden Girls, Murder She Wrote, Matlock and Dick Van Dykes crime show.

 

To me, the sign that CBS was heading in the wrong direction was when they managed to lose the National Football League package to an upstart FOX network (which in the process, gave FOX instant credibility) in late 1993. You know that you really f'd up big time if the NFL had been on your network since 1956 and you manage to lose it to a network that wasn't even ten years old yet! CBS also managed to lose $500 million on their four year Major League Baseball contract. By 1995, CBS Sports was going into the abyss without the NFL, MLB, the NBA (which they gave up in 1989-90 to NBC in order to make room for MLB), and college football (having lost the CFA package in 1990) on their plate.

[TMC1982 0]

Lloyd Braun who was the exec at ABC (when they were 3rd or 4th place in the late 90's-early 00's) and passed on CSI and Survivor.

 

But Jeff Zucker and his boss Jeff Immelt over at NBC take the cake.

 

Care to elaborate why Tom Rothman is a dirty word?

 

Jeff Zucker is like the major league version of Dawn Ostroff in the sense that he like Ostroff, manages to still be employed despite doing an excellent job at royally fucking up the network.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Ha, Lloyd Braun. His phone wasn't even plugged in!

 

I'm sure Eric Bischoff would throw Jamie Kellner in here.

[Darthtiki 0]

Lloyd Braun who was the exec at ABC (when they were 3rd or 4th place in the late 90's-early 00's) and passed on CSI and Survivor.

 

But Jeff Zucker and his boss Jeff Immelt over at NBC take the cake.

 

Care to elaborate why Tom Rothman is a dirty word?

 

Was Lloyd Braun at ABC during the period in which they were overexposing Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

 

The one and same.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I think he wrote his own wikipedia page because that sort of thing is omitted. Instead, it champions him as losing his job for producing huge hits for ABC (but Lost was too expensive).

 

Braun's first major success came with producer David Chase for their idea for the show The Sopranos.[1] He went on to serve as the Chairman of the ABC Entertainment Group from 2002 to 2004. Braun was forced out of his position at ABC shortly after greenlighting the $13 million pilot to the television show Lost, one of the most expensive in modern broadcasting. The show went on to become a huge success, as did other shows greenlit by Braun and his partner, Susan Lyne, including Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. These shows began an unprecedented turnaround for ABC.[2]

[BUTT 0]

Overexposing Millionaire was a smart move. That show was going to flame out anyway, so they made as much money from it as they could.

 

Bringing back Joe Millionaire for a second season was one of the dumbest things a network has done this decade, and it bumped Boston Public to the Friday night death slot. I'll never forgive Fox for that.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

Hey Crimson on your initial list you forgot Action. God I loved that show and they fucked it over hard. So glad I found the DVDs.

[BUTT 0]

shortly behind that is whoever at CBS decided they wanted to be the Crime Broadcasting System.

That someone is Les Moonves and he's the greatest programmer living today so shut your mouth. I don't even watch anything on CBS but I greatly admire the empire he's built. I don't know who was running CBS before him but dear God they ran out of steam in the early '90s. Ever look at the schedule he inherited during his first year, the fall season of 1995? Remember New York News, Courthouse, Dweebs, Central Park West, Almost Perfect, If Not For You, Bless This House? Holy crap was that a bad schedule.

 

Has anyone here read Desperate Networks? It's full of all kinds of network exec crap and cool stories and such.

[BUTT 0]

Hey Crimson on your initial list you forgot Action. God I loved that show and they fucked it over hard. So glad I found the DVDs.

Might I suggest that the show's failure may have been owed in part to placing Ileana Douglas in a starring role? I'm sorry but that woman is OOGLY

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Care to elaborate why Tom Rothman is a dirty word?

 

He's the classic Meddling Executive and has ruined many a movie by his insistance on them being PG and having a run time of 90 minutes. It has gotten to the point where many high profile directors simply refuse to work with FOX anymore. Dragonball Evolution and Wolverine are his latest in a long line of atrocities.

[YourKock'sReallyGreat 0]

Care to elaborate why Tom Rothman is a dirty word?

 

He's the classic Meddling Executive and has ruined many a movie by his insistance on them being PG and having a run time of 90 minutes. It has gotten to the point where many high profile directors simply refuse to work with FOX anymore. Dragonball Evolution and Wolverine are his latest in a long line of atrocities.

 

 

 

What were the others?

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Care to elaborate why Tom Rothman is a dirty word?

 

He's the classic Meddling Executive and has ruined many a movie by his insistance on them being PG and having a run time of 90 minutes. It has gotten to the point where many high profile directors simply refuse to work with FOX anymore. Dragonball Evolution and Wolverine are his latest in a long line of atrocities.

 

 

 

What were the others?

 

X3, Fantastic Four 1 & 2, Alien vs. Predator, Daredevil, Kingdom of Heaven, etc. There are really too many to name them all.