Struggling NBC sends 3 top executives packing

The three -- Katherine Pope, Teri Weinberg and Craig Plestis -- all lost their high-profile jobs amid one of the most sweeping shake-ups in television. The purging signals the desperation of NBC Universal bosses to fix the network, which slid back into fourth place last week.

NBC's latest solution: It plans to announce next week that Angela Bromstad, who has been running a production unit for the company in London, will return to Los Angeles to become the network's chief programming executive.

She will assume a role that many expected Ben Silverman to fill when he joined the company nearly 18 months ago as co-chairman of NBC Entertainment. Silverman is negotiating a new contract with NBC that will include additional duties, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

"Somebody's head had to roll," said David Scardino, a longtime television analyst with advertising agency RPA in Santa Monica. "But why these people? Maybe they were the ones who were picked to lay on the pavement so the bus could run over them."

The former first-place television network, once the proud home of "Must-See TV" and such award-winning shows as "Seinfeld," "Friends," and "Frasier," has been embroiled in management upheaval for more than two years.

Despite the musical chairs in the programming suites, the peacock network continues to lose viewers at a rapid pace. This season NBC's ratings are down 14% compared with the same time last season -- a new low.

Recently launched programs, including "Knight Rider," "Lipstick Jungle" and "My Own Worst Enemy," have all flopped as well as the heavily promoted special last week featuring Rosie O'Donnell. The sitcom "Kath & Kim" has performed below expectations. NBC's juggernaut drama "Heroes" also has stumbled badly, losing nearly half of its audience from its peak during its first season.

As part of the restructuring, NBC plans to collapse its two separate programming groups -- one at the network and the other at the TV production studio -- into one team managed by Bromstad. Bromstad, a former NBC studio chief, is a close ally of NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker.

The move is intended to cut costs and eliminate the seemingly endless turf battles between programming executives at the network and the studio.