Hollywood Reporter Prettttty Skeptical of Comcast’s Steve Burke

NBC/Universal/Kabletown has been in turmoil lately. There was the Ann Curry firing. The Matt Lauer backlash. The Leno/Fallon shakeup. And at the center of it, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke, who’s raising some eyebrows over at the Hollywood Reporter.

All media bosses like to say content is king king. But at Time Warner and NBCUniversal, the thrones are occupied by executives who lack experience creating movies or, more importantly, television shows. And some in Hollywood believe their recent decisions might be taking a toll on their companies.

Put another way: the Comcast hack who lives in Center City Philadelphia just can’t cut it in teeveeland. And the Reporter suggests his public handling of NBC’s woes isn’t helping matters.

Having stayed out of the public eye during his first two years on the job, Burke has placed himself in the middle of the broadcast network’s affairs in recent months. He boasted in the fall when NBC briefly bounced to No. 1 in primetime in the 18-to-49 demo. But once The Voice and Sunday Night Football were off the schedule, the network fell hard and fast.

The Reporter also quotes a “veteran studio boss” suggesting Burke’s claims that he resolved tensions between Leno and Fallon might be premature. “Burke is out in front of it in The New York Times, just like he was with Lauer and just like he was with the schedule before it tanked,” he said. “Let’s see how it works.” [Hollywood Reporter]