R.I.P. James Gandolfini 
Warner Bros Sets Morten Tyldum To Helm … 
Zac Efron Thriller ‘The Falling’ Gets Jeremy … 
Why Was Ex-Soft Porn Filmmaker Recently Hired As Movie … 
ReelzChannel Cancels ‘The Big Picture’ After … 
Cillian Murphy Boards ‘In The Heart Of The Sea’ 
John Legend To Produce Comedy Project About Music Managers … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Crystal Fairy’ 
Sam Taylor-Johnson To Direct ‘Fifty Shades Of … 
Inside AMPAS Board Of Governors’ Meeting: Conflict Of … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Spectacular Now’ 
Glenn Geller To Run Current Programming For CBS & CBS … 
Shailene Woodley’s Mary Jane Role Cut From ‘The … 
New ‘Star Wars’ Film Cast Breakdown Unveiled 
CAA Signs Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck, Oscar-Winning … 
UPDATE: Dan Abrams Named New ‘Nightline’ Anchor … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘The Voice’ Finale On Par … 
Joy Bryant Returns To Longtime Agent Steve Alexander At … 
ITV Pays $30M For Controlling Stake In ‘Hatfields … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Anchorman 2′ 
2ND UPDATE: Charlie Sheen Fired Selma Blair From … 
NBC’s new marketing president Len Fogge, who joined the network from Showtime last summer, is reorganizing the network’s marketing department, with fewer than 10 of the department’s 150 employees getting laid off today. The highest ranking among them is 26-year NBC veteran Jim Vescera, most recently EVP and creative director of NBC Entertainment Marketing, who sent out an internal good-bye note last night. Insiders described the process as “fine-tuning” as Fogge looks to tweak creative direction and eliminate redundancies created by several regime changes at the network over the past decade. It includes the cutting of some positions and reconfiguration of others. Fogge’s former Showtime colleague Richard Licata, now head of NBC’s publicity department, is expected to implement similar reorganization next week, with also fewer than 10 department staffers expected to be laid off. The moves come on the heels of the new NBC administration’s biggest marketing and promotional campaign to date for midseason musical drama Smash.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
Loading ...
Smash is phenomenal. However, they need to fix their marketing Department. It’s one of the reasons why they’ve done so poorly. Most of their ads are awful.
On the contrary. They remain the most creative and productive in the business as evidenced by the fact that they can launch a show, but the shows can’t hold the audience. Be more specific in your critique, otherwise you’re just a whiner.
They don’t have anyone watching. How good can their marketing be????
I worked under Jim for 8 years. He is a great leader and will be missed by many at the company. -A Friend
Their advertising has been a big problem. There’s no reason why Parenthood, one of the few high quality shows from old regime can’t be doing better in the ratings than it is currently doing.
How’s this for a reason; It is a very soft touchy feely show, that doesn’t appeal to a larger segment of the audience. Has nothing to do with how it is marketed on an ongoing basis. It launched big and then settled on its own. Promos can merely inform the fans now. That is the state of 100 television choices every night.
NBC has the worst marketing department around. Thank god they are changing things around. It’s embarrassing.
Why would you be embarrassed? Do you work on an NBC show? Can you not go home for Thanksgiving and hold your head high? What is there to be embarrassed about?
ABC makes NBC look like Chait Day. Farewell, Jim. Maybe nobody remembers when EVERYBODY wanted to look like you…but some of us do.
Jim is the definition of a class act!
Jim is a major marketing pro. NBC’s problems go exactly to the moment they upped Zucker and he ruined the place. Jim deserves better. Can’t wait to see where he lands.
@BriteBlonde1 –
You said it! I have never seen a company so shamelessly flailing around trying to blame everyone else for the mistakes that came DIRECTLY from the top. I can’t wait until Jim goes someplace where the shows are worth promoting in the first place!
Jim was a talented guy to work for. He had the ability to stand up for his producers and build a great working environment. The marketing department is great – they get people to the shows…unfortunatly you are only as good as the vaccum cleaner you are selling.
Trying to fix the network model into a cable model never works. We’ve seen ‘em come and seen ‘em go – unfortunatly guys like Vescera lose their jobs in the process.
Great guy – hope good things happen to him.
I think the promo department at NBC has done as good a job as possible, considering the material they had to promote. The main job of the department was to get people to watch night 1, and they consistently did a good job of that. Once people get a look at the actual show however, and see that it is crap, there’s only so much you can do to get them back for night 2. Hopefully, as the shows improve, the promo department will once again rise above these dark times and do what they do best.
Good point…
“I think the promo department at NBC has done as good a job as possible, considering the material they had to promote.”
Jim’s a good guy. And how would you promote the 3-4 good shows with limited time/resources and sentenced to be sqeezed out by a torrent of turds.
Jim was and is one of the most talented marketing executives in the business. He alone has weathered the changes in regimes that have brought us such wonderful gems as Daddio, Whoopi, Kath & Kim, and let’s not forget Inside Schwartz.
Jim and NBC had a very good track record of launching shows – even without strong on-air ratings and very rarely any lead ins. To name a few that launched well: The Voice, Southland, Parenthood (yes – go back and look at those debut ratings and see how quickly they fell) and even Bionic Woman – which beat Private Practice’s premiere at a time when Grey’s Anatomy was at the very top. And both times when NBC had the Super Bowl, their creative was praised as highly as the other advertisers – something you don’t always hear when the other nets have it.
Every year, NBC wins more Promax awards than the other networks. Their producers are the best in the world. The problem is that you can only polish a turd just so much. Jim is a class act and he’ll be missed.
This is a department within the NBC structure that desperately needs retooling and fixing after what they did to a lot of their promising shows from years past, such as Las Vegas…lack of proper marketing just hurt the program and it ended up getting canceled for no apparent reason. These are some positive steps but a lot more work needs to be done there to fix that gaping hole called NBC.
c’mon Jed be more specific. You can’t say the marketing killed that show. In fact marketing kept it on for two years. The apparent reason it was canceled is not enough people watched it and it was too expensive to produce and it didn’t have international appeal. It was a 80′s style (although updated) ensemble show, only a notch above a Love Boat retooling.
Jim is the best Creative Director in this business. He’s helped launch and nurture countless careers and managed some of the best campaigns (Must SeeTV!) in television history. Petty politics won’t diminish his achievements and a remarkable track record. Some smart company will grab this guy.
Jim was an amazing boss & I’m sure he’ll go on to do more amazing things. As you can tell from the chorus of voices he is well liked and just a classy guy all around!
I think most of the negative observations here come from people who either couldn’t cut it in the NBC marketing department or worked on a show that was probably canceled by NBC. Mr. Vescera was not only the classiest act next to John & Vince, he was a true creative inspiration for countless people who have become successful throughout this business as creative directors, VP’s, SVP’s and business owners. What we learned from Jim is unmeasurable across all television marketing departments. His influence and principals are evident throughout our industry. Your arguments are not valid here. Whiners.
Jim gave me a shot at freelancing for him when no one else would’ve answered my calls. I won three Promax awards for the first spot I wrote, leading me to a great five year run with his team (and a few other companies as well). If the economy hadn’t tanked, I’d still be working for him. Good luck, Jim, wherever you land — you’ve still got my contact number!
Needed to happen. ABC, CBS and FOX promote their shows and continue to promote throughout the season. NBC annoys with overboard promotion before premiere and then no promos after.
Glad to see the comments from people who actually KNOW Jim are 100 percent accurate. I’ve known him almost every day of his 26 year tenure at NBC. He has survived more presidents, EVPS and management incarnations than almost anyone in NBC’s history because he is so rock solid great at his job.
From Let’s all Be There to Must See TV to the theatrically-minded campaigns airing today, Jim has been the backbone of them all. I can only wonder how many hours it took to pack up all of the trophies he’s won for NBC since 1986. Jim Vescera is an enduring name in television marketing and will be for years to come.