Not long ago, Jeff Gaspin was known inside NBC Universal as a "man without a country." The executive floated from job to job, collecting clunky titles such as executive vice president for alternative series, longform, specials and program strategy.
No one can say that now. Last week, the man without a country gained an empire as the reserved 48-year-old executive was thrust into the No. 2 job at NBC Universal, directly under Chief Executive Jeff Zucker. Gaspin now manages all of NBC's TV entertainment operations, including the NBC network, NBC's Spanish-language networks and cable channels including USA Network and Bravo.
He also won a streamlined title: chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment.
"This is another piece in putting together a team that will hopefully bring us more success," Zucker said. "I know Jeff incredibly well and I trust him implicitly."
But with the new gig comes big challenges. Technology has roiled the media industry and executives are scrambling to protect the mainstay 30-second commercial and the lucrative fees earned from selling TV program reruns -- which have long underwritten the high cost of making dramas and comedies -- in the ad-zapping digital age.
Gaspin must stem NBC's more than five-year slide in ratings and profits as well as stabilize the network's West Coast division after two years with Ben Silverman at the programming controls, a tumultuous period that produced lots of gossip but no hit shows.
"None of us are happy with the position that NBC is in," Gaspin said. "We have to make progress."
Gaspin's promotion also elevates an executive who cut his teeth in cable and the burgeoning genre of reality TV, rather than in the trenches of scripted comedy and drama development that has been the more common breeding ground for network executives. But, perhaps not surprisingly, reality and cable is where NBC has had some success in recent years, with shows such as "The Biggest Loser."
The older of two boys, Gaspin grew up in Bayside, N.Y., the son of a spendthrift father who drove a Lincoln Continental and a mother who worked to keep the family afloat. Gaspin describes himself at the time as "a little introverted," an earnest student who sat in the front row to compensate for poor eyesight.
"I was always ambitious," Gaspin said. "I grew up in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment."
