Jeff Zucker Could Be Mulling a Future in Sports
variety.comBrian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAfter nine years of generating headlines for CNN, Jeff Zucker is giving new thought to testing his acumen for the world of sports.The former WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal executive, who abruptly left his job as head of CNN in February after acknowledging he failed to disclose a romantic relationship with Allison Gollust, CNN’s former chief marketing officer, is said to be mulling some offers from the sports sector, according to two people familiar with the matter.
None of these conversations are believed to be in their final stages, according to one of these people, and Zucker is said to be having discussions around a wide array of potential opportunities.Sports wouldn’t be a new area for Zucker.
In 2019, he took oversight of WarnerMedia’s Turner Sports, in addition to running CNN. During his time as head of the bulk of the company’s live-programming assets, Turner Sports expanded its rights with Major League Baseball and launched a new relationship with the National Hockey League (that opened the possibility for some of those games to stream on HBO Max).
Turner also started a new celebrity-golf tournament, “The Match,” that allowed the company to get into golf — of a sort — without having to score new rights from a pre-existing league.
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