NBC Dismissed Today Exec, The top executive at NBC’s “Today” show who was fired on Monday after just 10 weeks on the job alienated key decision-makers at NBC News by pushing too hard and too quickly for potential changes on the show, especially among the prominent, on-air names, according to senior executives with knowledge of his departure.
Jamie Horowitz, an executive from ESPN, was brought in with fanfare in September, and was almost immediately at odds with the very managers at NBC News who hired him, according to one senior NBC executive, who characterized the decision to dismiss him as “massively embarrassing.”
That executive and several others asked not to be identified discussing internal personnel issues and because terms of Mr. Horowitz’s settlement with the network have not been completed.
Several executives said he had signed a three-year contract worth about $3.3 million. NBC will negotiate a deal to settle the contract, the executives said, which also includes a provision that Mr. Horowitz not speak about his brief experience at NBC. He was unavailable for comment.
While the decision to let Mr. Horowitz go was welcome in some corners of NBC News, he did have some support among staff members looking for change at “Today.”
What occurred in his case is not widely in dispute. He quickly made some important enemies at the show, according to the executives. When leaks began to appear in the news media about potential changes that might affect cast members — as well as rumors that he himself might be in line to replace the president of NBC News, Deborah Turness, who had hired him — the network decided, as one senior executive put it, “that we hired the wrong guy.”
The precipitous nature of the firing reflected concerns prompted by some of Mr. Horowitz’s conversations — during a “listening tour” of staff members — about potential changes at the show, as well as fears of advancing further rumors about chaos in the division under Ms. Turness, who has become a lightning rod for criticism about NBC News.
Several staff members said that despite the implication that Ms. Turness could be held responsible for hiring Mr. Horowitz in the first place, she was being widely credited on Tuesday for acting swiftly to confront and solve the issue.
While this latest episode is sure to keep alive the issue of how much backing Ms. Turness retains at the network, a senior NBC executive said, “NBC’s management has unwavering support for Deborah.”
Inside NBC, the episode was characterized as bizarre and unsettling, because top executives like Patricia Fili-Krushel and Ms. Turness had ardently recruited Mr. Horowitz. NBC even engaged in a trade of sorts with the Walt Disney Company, ESPN’s parent, to free up Mr. Horowitz to join the network in September. Disney was originally holding Mr. Horowitz to his contract, meaning he could not start until December, but NBC allowed an MSNBC producer, Bill Wolff, to join Disney’s show “The View,” and won an early release for Mr. Horowitz.
In his conversations with staff members, Mr. Horowitz presented himself as a change agent at “Today,” which was what Ms. Turness was seeking when she hired him.
At NBC News, few things are more important than regaining leadership in the morning news ratings, which “Today” held for a record 16 years, but lost to ABC’s “Good Morning America” in 2012. In a previous interview, Ms. Turness called “Today” “the crown jewel. In my universe it is absolutely No. 1.” A major reason: It is by far the most profitable program at NBC News.
Even though NBC has been aggressively sending the message that “Today” is back on the rise after two years of steadily trailing “G.M.A.,” the ABC program still has a substantial lead in the ratings, especially among the viewers that news advertisers pay to reach, viewers ages 25 to 54.
Mr. Horowitz was given the title “general manager” of the “Today” show, with the clear implication that he was hired to find a way to overtake “G.M.A.”
The problem, several NBC executives said, was that Mr. Horowitz pushed too aggressively to suggest potential changes. While calling him intelligent and charismatic, the NBC executives suggested that Mr. Horowitz did not grasp the highly sensitized culture of “Today” quickly enough. (ESPN is known to be more hard-charging.)
Many of the important players at “Today,” on camera and off, have been with the show for long periods. The show drew ferocious criticism when it changed its talent lineup two years ago, removing Ann Curry from her co-anchor job.
One leak of a plan that was tied back to Mr. Horowitz suggested that he was discussing removing another longtime female cast member, Natalie Morales. Ms. Morales is well-liked on the show, and many of her supporters were upset that her post was suddenly threatened.
After Mr. Horowitz’s departure, the core of the “Today” cast and management is expected to stay intact, several staff members said. But Ms. Turness has told others at the network that she would like to replace Mr. Horowitz quickly and continue to look for more evolutionary changes in the program to improve its competitive position.
