Jeff Zucker

The NBC veteran is trying everything to shift a faded network into a higher gear. He’s come into his new job like a man rummaging through the contents of a cluttered attic. His moves haven’t done much yet to goose the network’s woebegone ratings. They have, however, simultaneously invigorated and terrified its employees.

Former NBC News boss Steve Capus isn’t sitting still. Less than three weeks after exiting 30 Rock, the 49-year-old news veteran is in conversation with CNN global chief Jeff Zucker about job opportunities, several sources say. While neither is committing to anything yet, Zucker has notably just hired former NBC colleague Allison Gollust as his top spokeswoman — and speculation is rife she won’t be the only NBC alum he’ll draft to Columbus Circle.

Anderson Cooper’s 10 p.m. show is set to be slashed by CNN chief Jeff Zucker to make room for a big new hire, network sources have revealed. Zucker is already moving Erin Burnett to helm a morning show alongside new hire Chris Cuomo, fresh from ABC — which means the evenings are opened up.

Jeff Zucker promised to change CNN. He’s doing so, and fast. In the past 24 hours, CNN has poached yet another big name from ABC News, dropped one top executive and seen the departure of three well-known contributors, and announced the launch of a new morning program that, according to network sources, will have ripple effects on the primetime programming,

As speculation hits a fever pitch over whom Jeff Zucker will woo next to try and reinvigorate CNN, sources say he’s eyeing ABC’s primetime news lineup. After poaching senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper, insiders say Zucker’s looking at further ABC talent, including 20/20 co-anchor Chris Cuomo.

New CNN boss Jeff Zucker has been looking to raid certain print publications to beef up the network’s talent roster. A source says he’s “reached out to some top reporters in Hollywood to help CNN break more news in that area.”

Incoming president of CNN Worldwide Jeff Zucker has plans to bring ousted Today show co-host Ann Curry to his new network as a high-profile anchor, sources say. Zucker — the former executive producer of Today and one-time NBCUniversal head — is interested in installing Curry in CNN’s 8 p.m. time slot, which is currently occupied by Anderson Cooper.

“I’ll be [at Katie] for a few more weeks helping with the transition,” he told reporters today when his appointment to the presidency of CNN was announced. “I’ll be leaving there by the middle of January.”

Former NBC Universal executive Jeff Zucker was tapped today to be the president of CNN Worldwide. Zucker will succeed Jim Walton, the current president of CNN, in January.

Disney-ABC has launched a search for top-level producer(s) to take the reins of Katie Couric’s syndicated daytime talk show. The contingency plan is being put in place as speculation intensifies that Katie executive producer Jeff Zucker would be leaving the freshman talker.

Tribune Co. owners are again casting around for candidates to lead the troubled media outfit, which has been in Chapter 11 for more than three years. Former NBCUniversal boss Jeff Zucker is a leading candidate to run the debt-plagued newspaper and TV station company, sources say.

Former NBC executives Don Ohlmeyer and Jeff Zucker take a beating in a new book by their ex-colleague Warren Littlefield, who was entertainment president of the peacock network during its 1990s glory days of Friends, Seinfeld and ER.

At NATPE, she and Jeff Zucker emphasize their desire to do everything that’s needed to promote their new syndicated talk show, including working with stations across the country.

Jeff Zucker, who stepped down as president and CEO of NBC Universal in February, just can’t get away from the debacle between Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien. Appearing for a Q&A session with CNN’s Ali Velshi at Promax BDA — the annual marketing, branding and design confab — Velshi queried Zucker about the decision to put Leno back on The Tonight Show after the failed 10 p.m. experiment.

Katie Couric and ABC are on the verge of signing a $20 million deal, which would give Couric her own talk show, as well as significant involvement in ABC News — and the big casualty could be General Hospital.

Just-ousted NBC Universal President-CEO Jeff Zucker yesterday praised AOL’s $315 million acquisition of The Huffington Post. He said NBC had tried for 18 months to buy the popular blog but “could never agree on price.”

Former NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, expected to set up shop Monday on Park Avenue, is already lining up his next gig — he’s talking about starting a syndicated talk show featuring CBS News anchor Katie Couric, according to three separate sources. Word of a possible Zucker-Couric venture comes as the 54-year-old anchor nears the end of her five-year contract that will pay her $15 million this year.

Jeff Zucker dropped a strong hint at the end of his one on one session at NATPE on Monday about what he wants to do when he leaves NBC this Friday. The former executive producer of The Today Show said the thing he loved the most during his 24 years at NBC was producing programming for news and sports. “I’m passionate about producing,” said Zucker, adding that he has been doing a lot of thinking about “getting back into that.”

The long-awaited completion of the takeover of NBC Universal by Comcast will have to wait until the new year. Outgoing NBC Universal CEO Jeffrey Zucker sent a memo to staff this afternoon explaining that regulatory approval of the deal, under which Comcast will acquire 51% of NBCU from the General Electric Company, will not be finalized by the end of this month, as Comcast executives had hoped.

Is NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker agreeing to deals that line the pockets of his closest allies before the Comcast takeover? That’s what some folks inside 30 Rock are saying in light of NBC Universal’s pact to sell video-streaming service Netflix fresh episodes of SNL a day after they air on TV. The move would appear to undermine Hulu in its quest to be the only place for in-season broadcast network fare. It’s all the more strange when one considers who created Hulu: NBCU.

NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, who will be leaving the company when Comcast assumes control, accepted responsibility for NBC’s failures in primetime.