Today’s announcement that Rick Kaplan would be the Executive Producer of both The Early Show and the CBS Evening News reminds us that this is not the first time one person has been the top producer, or even anchor, of two network news broadcasts. Now NBCU president, Jeff Zucker did double duty on the Today show and NBC Nightly News in the early 1990’s. Tom Brokaw anchored both in the 70’s. Below are excerpts from an article written by TVNewser columnist Gail Shister for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
At NBC, Zucker made his bones in January ’92 by becoming Today‘s youngest executive producer in history. He was 26 and barely shaving.
A year later, he took on the unheard-of daily double as e.p. of Today and Tom Brokaw’s NBC Nightly News.
Brokaw anchored both shows for brief stints in the mid-’70s. “At the end of two weeks I was kind of drooling,” he said in ’93. Zucker’s two-fer was mercifully short-lived, and he returned to Today.Advertisement