Don't Discount the Quiet Guy In Leno, OBrien Saga

The news that Jay Leno was returning to late night broke early last Thursday evening. I was surprised that few of the initial news reports reminded folks that a majority stake in NBC/Universal is in the process of being sold by GE to Comcast Corporation. Last Friday's Wall Street Journal covered off on the acquisition a bit. It attributed, to a person with close ties to NBC/Universal, that Comcast isn't involved in any way in the deliberations. "The timing of the (Leno/O'Brien) discussions and Comcast's agreement to buy control of NBC/Universal is a coincidence," it wrote. One piece I read early Sunday, did, in fact, attribute a "no comment" to Comcast COO Steve Burke, when asked about the continuing Leno/Conan O'Brien saga.

While Steve Burke may not have had a comment -- and he couldn't have because the Comcast, GE deal still faces regulatory approval -- he certainly has an opinion. You see, Steve Burke is the son of Dan Burke; part of the legendary, two-man, tag team that founded the ABC-station group, Capital Cities Broadcasting, and later used the affiliate as the vehicle to buy all of the much-larger ABC broadcasting company. I worked for Dan Burke for seven years and Dan is perhaps the biggest champion and most vocal advocate of the "think strategically/act tactically" decision making model. It seems to me, that if the strategy was to keep both Leno and O'Brien in the NBC family then the tactic of committing The Tonight Show to O'Brien five years ago may have made some sense. I believe however, that Dan Burke, and Steve Burke for that matter, would not have bought into that strategy -- and I certainly did not!

As Steve Burke prepares to take control of NBC/Universal, and begin the process of integrating it into Comcast Corporation, he is, undoubtedly, relieved that the Leno Prime Time experiment is coming to an end and the King of Late Night is being returned to his rightful place.... and rest assured, we will, all, be hearing alot from quiet guy, Steve Burke in the not-too-distant, NBC future.