NBC

• 1. Introduction

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  NBC, the National Broadcasting Company, was born in 1926 out of a single idea: that radio signals carrying sound across great distances could be organized into a nationwide network. The Radio Corporation of America created it, and within months General Electric, Westinghouse, AT&T, and even United Fruit Company had a stake in the venture. That unlikely coalition gave rise to what is now the oldest of the traditional major American broadcast networks.

  The peacock, NBC's most recognizable symbol, arrived in 1956. It was introduced not for decorative purposes but to promote something specific: the company's push into color broadcasting. That bird has outlasted dozens of competitors, survived antitrust battles, corporate sales, and a complete transformation of the media landscape. The story of how a radio network from 1926 grew into the institution that airs the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Law and Order: SVU, and the Olympic Games is a story of ambition, occasional catastrophe, and a handful of decisions that changed American television.

• 2. Corporate Crossroads

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  In 1932, the U.S. government forced General Electric to sell RCA and NBC on antitrust grounds. That divestiture reshaped the network's ownership for decades. GE would not return to the picture until late 1986, when it paid $6.4 billion to buy RCA back. Almost immediately, GE sold off or shuttered most of RCA's other divisions, keeping NBC as the centerpiece.

  The next major reshaping came in 2004, when French media company Vivendi Universal merged its entertainment holdings with GE to form NBCUniversal. Comcast then moved in, purchasing a controlling interest in 2011 and acquiring GE's remaining stake two years later in 2013. Today NBC sits as the flagship of NBC Entertainment, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. Rockefeller Center's Comcast Building in New York City serves as the network's headquarters, a building whose construction NBC's predecessor companies helped finance.

• 3. The Weaver Years

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  Sylvester Weaver joined NBC in 1949 with a specific mission: challenge CBS's ratings lead. What he left behind was a restructured industry. Before Weaver, advertising agencies typically developed each television program for a single corporate sponsor. Weaver introduced the practice of networks producing their own programs and then selling advertising time within them. That shift meant a single sponsor pulling out could no longer doom a show.

  Weaver created Today in 1952 and in 1954 launched Tonight Starring Steve Allen, the first program in what became The Tonight Show franchise. He also created Home and Wide Wide World. He believed broadcasting should educate as well as entertain, and he required NBC programs to include at least one sophisticated cultural reference per episode. He pushed for NBC Radio as well, developing NBC Monitor in 1955, a weekend-long magazine block that ran until 1975. His departure came after disputes with NBC chairman David Sarnoff, who found his ambitions too expensive and too highbrow.

• 4. Saturday Night and the Tartikoff Era

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  Herbert Schlosser, who served as president from 1974 to 1978, faced a practical problem: Johnny Carson wanted to cancel the weekend editions of The Tonight Show. Schlosser asked his vice president of late-night programming, Dick Ebersol, to fill the Saturday slot. Ebersol and Lorne Michaels developed the concept over three weeks. The show was originally called NBC's Saturday Night because Saturday Night Live was already in use by an ABC program hosted by sportscaster Howard Cosell. NBC bought the rights to the name in 1976 and officially adopted the new title on the 26th of March 1977.

  Brandon Tartikoff became president of NBC's entertainment division in 1981 at age 32, the youngest person ever to hold the position. He inherited a network in last place, with affiliates defecting and only three shows in the Nielsen Top 20. His recovery strategy produced some of the most discussed programs of the 1980s. The memo that became Miami Vice reportedly read simply "MTV cops." His idea for Knight Rider grew from a perceived shortage of leading men, with Tartikoff suggesting a talking car could compensate. He also pursued Bill Cosby for a comedy pilot after watching Cosby guest-host The Tonight Show, and that pursuit became The Cosby Show. When actor Michael J. Fox was cast on Family Ties over Tartikoff's objections, Fox later sent him a lunch box with a handwritten note: "To Brandon: This is for you to put your crow in. Love and Kisses, Michael J. Fox." Tartikoff kept it in his office for the rest of his career.

• 5. Flagship Programs

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  Meet the Press debuted in 1947 and holds the distinction of the longest continuously running program in the history of American television. Today launched in 1952, The Tonight Show reached a national audience in 1954, and Saturday Night Live premiered in 1975. Law and Order: Special Victims Unit debuted in 1999 and began its 26th season in October 2024, making it the longest-running live-action series in American prime-time television history.

• 6. Children and Specials

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  Howdy Doody debuted on NBC in 1947 and was one of the first breakthrough television shows of its era. Four decades later, the Saturday morning lineup looked entirely different. In 1989, NBC premiered Saved by the Bell, a live-action teen sitcom that had originated on The Disney Channel the previous year as Good Morning, Miss Bliss, a vehicle for Hayley Mills. Four cast members carried their characters from that show into the NBC series. Critics gave it bad reviews. It became one of the most popular teen series in television history and dethroned ABC's The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show as the top-rated Saturday morning program in its first season.

  For live holiday programming, NBC has broadcast the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade since 1953, and in 2007 acquired the rights to the National Dog Show, which airs immediately after. Beginning in 2013, the network launched a series of live musical adaptations: The Sound of Music in 2013 starred Carrie Underwood as Maria Von Trapp, and Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert in 2018 featured John Legend as Jesus, Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene, and Alice Cooper as King Herod.

• 7. News and the Cable Expansion

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  NBC's news operations trace back to the network's earliest radio days and expanded steadily through the television era. Julian Goodman, who served as president from 1966 to 1974, negotiated a $1 million deal to retain Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show. Robert Kintner, who preceded him from 1958 to 1966, pushed the news division aggressively and gave it more resources, including coverage of the 1960 presidential election campaign, helping the Huntley-Brinkley Report rise to prominence among network news programs.

  In 1989, the news division expanded into cable with the launch of CNBC. MSNBC followed in 1996, originally as a joint venture with Microsoft. In 2008, NBC acquired The Weather Channel in conjunction with Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. NBC has also held American broadcasting rights to the Summer Olympic Games since the 1988 games, and rights to the Winter Olympic Games since the 2002 games, with coverage routinely pre-empting regularly scheduled programming across daytime, prime time, and late night. The news division's connection to the Olympics extends to anchor talent: key NBC News anchors are used during Olympic coverage.

• 8. Reach and Affiliates

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  NBC has 12 owned-and-operated stations and affiliation agreements with 222 additional television stations covering all 50 states, the District of Columbia, six U.S. possessions, and two non-U.S. territories including Aruba and Bermuda. The network reaches 88.91% of all U.S. households with at least one television set, a figure representing more than 277 million Americans.

  New Jersey and Delaware are the only U.S. states without a locally licensed NBC affiliate: New Jersey is served by the New York and Philadelphia owned-and-operated stations, while Delaware is covered by affiliates in Salisbury and Philadelphia. In Guam, affiliate KUAM-TV has carried NBC since 1956, operating on a one-day tape delay because Guam sits on the west side of the International Date Line. Gray Television is the largest operator of NBC-affiliated stations by quantity, owning 64 NBC-affiliated stations, while Tegna Inc., a subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group, operates the largest combined NBC affiliate reach by overall market size, with 20 affiliates in markets including Atlanta, Denver, and Seattle.