Tanking NBC fires three program execs

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- The U.S. television network NBC, which has slipped to fourth place in the ratings, has fired three top programming executives, sources say.

Without naming sources, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that NBC television studio President Katherine Pope, No. 2 programmer Teri Weinberg and alternative programming chief Craig Plestis have been fired after such new shows as "Knight Rider," "Lipstick Jungle" and "My Own Worst Enemy" all flopped.

The firings were the latest management upheavals for NBC, the once-proud home of such award-winning shows as "Seinfeld," "Friends," and "Frasier," which has lost another 14 percent of its viewing audience so far this year, the Times said.

The newspaper said NBC Universal Chief Executive Officer Jeff Zucker will move to end a chronic rivalry between the network's executive suite and its Burbank, Calif., studios by naming Angela Bromstad, who has been running a production unit for the company in London, to become the network's chief programming executive.