Rick Ludwin, former NBC Television executive dead at 71, he gave Seinfeld a chance.

[Will_H_69_9]

Rick Ludwin, a former executive at NBC has passed away at 71. he was responsible for giving Jerry Seinfeld's show "Seinfeld" a chance which in the end help create a huge TV hit for NBC. he also was responsible for giving Conan O'Brien a chance when all the other bosses at NBC wanted to cancel "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" for not gaining a audience quick enough after Letterman left the network's second late night show that follows the Tonight Show. He even stood up for Conan when the Tonight Show debacle of 2009/2010 which resulted in Jay Leno winning back "The Tonight Show" after the "Jay Leno Show" flopped in the ratings at the same time as Conan's short lived "Tonight Show" tenure (which i think may had been sabotaged by Leno and then head of NBC Jeff Zucker). Him backing Conan ended up causing a falling out between him and Leno. he retired from NBC in 2012, but kept following the TV industry after he retired from the industry. He was the one executive who understood and got the concept of "Comedy". he was also well like in the industry. as news broke of his death this afternoon, Conan O'Brien remembered him and paid tribute to him in the final minutes of his show on TBS as did Seth Meyers who paid tribute to him on tonight's taping of "Late Night with Seth Myers"

Story of his passing from Variety:
https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/rick-ludwin-nbc-late-night-executive-who-backed-seinfeld-dies-at-71-1203400852/

Conan O'Brien's tribute to Rick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHkoCyEgta4

Seth Meyers' tribute to Rick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cns57j8zsOQ

 

[FreddyE1977]

As Seinfeld is one of my all-time favorite shows:

Thank you, Sir, and Rest in Peace.