NBC’s Entertainment Chief Leaves in Latest Broadcast TV Shakeup

NBC’s entertainment chief, Robert Greenblatt, is stepping down from the company after almost eight years in charge, the latest change at the highest ranks of the major broadcast networks.

Greenblatt, who took over when the network’s prime time viewership was in the gutter, has been responsible for a remarkable turnaround effort. NBC finished the past television season No. 1 in the ratings for the fourth time in five seasons.

Greenblatt’s departure had been talked about in Hollywood during the Emmy Awards party circuit just over a week ago. At the time, through multiple representatives, Greenblatt denied he was leaving, though he was actually in the process of negotiating his exit.

But if his departure is not a surprise, the suddenness is. His last day is Monday, the same day the 2018-19 television season begins. He will be replaced by two people: Paul Telegdy, a president and the head of reality programming at NBC, and George Cheeks, a rising star at the company. They take over Tuesday.

The nearly unprecedented upheaval at the top levels of the broadcast networks is happening for a variety of reasons. A #MeToo scandal felled Leslie Moonves at CBS, Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox is leading to churn at ABC and Fox, and Greenblatt is a successful executive ready to ride off into the sunset.

But all of the broadcast networks are also dealing with the same problems: a declining number of viewers and a severely diminished influence in the era of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.

CBS enjoyed a long run of success under Moonves, but will need to chart a new future after he was ousted this month, following numerous allegations of sexual misconduct.

With Disney poised to take control of many 21st Century Fox assets early next year, there will be executive turnover at both ABC and Fox. The current head of Disney and ABC’s television group, Ben Sherwood, will leave the company at some point after the Fox deal is closed, according to a person familiar with his decision. Peter Rice, president of 21st Century Fox, will be in charge of most of Disney’s television properties. Dana Walden, currently co-chief executive of the Fox Television Group, is expected to have a high-ranking role at Disney and will likely oversee, among several things, ABC’s entertainment executives, according to two people familiar with the plan.

Fox, meanwhile, will likely forge a new identity once it loses its television studio after the deal with Disney closes.

Greenblatt, 58, said his decision was some time in the making, even though he signed a new contract a year ago.

“You do get weary in these jobs,” he said in an interview. “With the daily changes that go on, you’re constantly reconfiguring the business. I’m just really excited about doing something. Whatever I do will be some new challenge. These jobs are really relentless.”

NBC finished tops in the ratings after the summer’s numbers were calculated and the network’s prime time event “Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert” won five Emmys this month. Greenblatt — a theater junkie who is friends with Dolly Parton and who was an investor in “Hamilton” — orchestrated bringing live musicals to NBC and making them a staple of the schedule.

This is the second big executive change to NBC’s entertainment operation in the last six months. Jennifer Salke, Greenblatt’s No. 2 along with Telegdy, left earlier this year to take over Amazon’s entertainment offerings.

Greenblatt arrived at NBC after overseeing the entertainment division at Showtime. NBC at the time was still licking its wounds following its disastrous decision to abandon its 10 p.m. time slot for a daily Jay Leno show. That had severely limited the number of dramas that NBC could develop in any given year, and it took years to undo the damage. NBC’s comedy lineup, once the backbone of the network, had a pair of hits in “30 Rock” and “The Office” but the coffers were otherwise bare.

“We were in a complete rebuilding phase and everything had fallen apart,” Greenblatt told The New York Times in an interview two years ago.

It was a slog. As recently as May 2015, rumors circulated that Greenblatt was done. At NBC’s 2015 upfront presentation for advertisers, Jimmy Fallon, “The Tonight Show” host, said to Greenblatt as he was exiting the stage, “We’re all going to miss you, buddy. You had a good run.”

But armed with hits like “This Is Us,” “The Voice” and an array of Dick Wolf dramas from his “Law and Order” and Chicago empires, NBC reversed course. It helped that the network also had rights to “Sunday Night Football,” the highest-rated program in all of television. Other strategies also paid off, including loading up the month of December with musicals and holiday fare. Not only did those programs draw large audiences but they also provided free promotion for NBC’s midseason programs that premiered in January.

NBC has also found outsize success in the summer. “America’s Got Talent,” which has seen ratings spikes since Simon Cowell joined as a judge in 2016, has been a strong performer.

Stephen Burke, head of NBC Universal, said in an interview that discussions with Greenblatt about his departure had been going on for some time.

“We’ve talked over the last couple of years, very openly, and he would say, ‘Geez, I don’t know how much longer I can do this,'” Burke said. Other factors may have accelerated things. Greenblatt wanted to see if Comcast’s last-minute bid for 21st Century Fox’s properties would work and could possibly expand NBC’s portfolio. (It did not). And two of Greenblatt’s close friends — producer Craig Zadan and Broadway star Marin Mazzie — have died in the last five weeks.

Burke complimented Greenblatt on the “brilliant” job he had done at NBC, and said that it was a testament that his successors are both being promoted from within.

“The good news is he’s built a really good team and we didn’t look outside,” he said. “We picked two guys who are proven commodities in our company.”

Telegdy, 47, is the person largely credited with bringing “The Voice” to NBC, and being in charge of the strongest reality lineup in the business. In addition to “The Voice” and “America’s Got Talent,” NBC also broadcasts “Ellen’s Game of Games” and “Little Big Shots.”

Cheeks, 53, has been at NBC since 2012 and is the co-president of Universal Cable Productions. Many in Hollywood assumed he was the heir apparent to Bonnie Hammer’s vast NBC Universal cable empire.

Burke said that Greenblatt had recommended that they take over for him and “that’s what I was planning on doing anyway.”

As for his future, Greenblatt did indicate he’s not done with show business. He said he’d be open to a new job, including at a streaming platform.

“I love the idea of running a company,” he said, “but I don’t think it’ll be a broadcast network at this point.”