Ep 51.1: Nick Bernstein (Senior Vice President, Late Night Programming (West Coast), ViacomCBS)

Nick Bernstein is the Senior Vice President of Late Night Programming (West Coast) at ViacomCBS & is the executive in charge of the Late Late Show with James Corden. 

In Part 1 of this episode with Nick, we explore what it was like growing up in Maryland and how he would spend 4 hours every Sunday morning charting America’s Top 40 biggest hits on radio, the impact that Camp Taconic had & continues to have in his life, and how he ended up being an NBC page and working with legendary late night television executive, Rick Ludwin.

Highlights:

• 7:04: Why summer camps were & continue to be so important to Nick
• 15:13: Majoring in broadcast journalism at Syracuse University
• 19:28: How Nick became a NBC page 
• 24:39: How Nick ended up working for Rick Ludwin, who’s worked with every The Tonight Show host from Steve Allen to Jimmy Fallon
• 30:28: What makes a good host
• 33:11: Why Rick was a “man of conviction” who stood behind hosts like Conan O’Brien when no one else would
• 39:05: Believing that Conan O’Brien & Jimmy Fallon were the future of late night back in 2002
• 42:41: Replacing late night hosts
• 48:41: The Conan/Jay Leno debacle
• 56:00: Giving as much runway to shows as possible or… not?

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/51-1 

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