A week after a New York tabloid reported that the NBC News executive Jamie Horowitz had an “inside shot” at replacing Deborah Turness, the British president of the network’s news division, Horowitz’s fate at NBC has been confirmed. On Monday, Turness fired him.
Horowitz was ousted as general manager of the Today show, NBC News’s top program, only a few months after his arrival from ESPN, where he was a vice-president of original programming. Horowitz technically was not due to take the reins of Today until 1 December, but he had been running meetings with staff.
“He’s a talented producer and executive, but, together, he and I have come to the conclusion that this is not the right fit,” Turness said in a memo to staff. She said that she would oversee the show until a replacement could be named.
Horowitz’s departure played out against a backdrop of larger turmoil surrounding Turness, whose survival in the top job has been the subject of open speculation this month. Turness, a former ITV News executive, was named president of NBC News in May 2013.
Horowitz had been tasked with fortifying NBC’s morning news staple, Today, against ABC’s Good Morning America, which in 2012 ended Today’s 16-year streak as the top-rated morning show. The morning slot is a key prize in the network wars, because the early hours attract the audiences that advertisers will pay the most to appear in front of.
Horowitz’s exit follows multiple anonymously sourced reports of his allegedly abrasive behavior. Sources told the New York Daily News that Horowitz told producers in a meeting: “If this were Survivor, who would you vote off the island?” Deadline said NBC News employees described his management style “as a cross between ferris wheel and werewolf”. The NY Post has also reported on internal conflict at Today between Turness and co-hosts Natalie Morales and Tamron Hall.
NBC’s aggressive rebuttal of these and related morning television gossip stories led some to suggest that the stories were planted by Horowitz, according to the New York Times.
Turness said Horowitz’s role “will be filled in due course” and that she would be working with Don Nash, the Today show executive producer, and Jen Brown, vice-president and general manager of Today.com, to oversee the show in the interim.
