TVSquad

What do you do when you're losing a race, coming in last in a field of four, and have to justify your dismal performance? You change the scoring. What am I talking about? When asked about why his network is doing so poorly in the ratings, president and chief executive officer of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker told Television Week, "It's not just about the ratings anymore."

What? (Imagine that as said by the Aflac duck). Do you think he really meant it, or is Jeff just hoping that the advertisers won't mind that his primetime lineup is getting its collective butt kicked by CBS, ABC and Fox most every night on the week?

Just to be fair, Zucker explains that the ratings don't matter because the network is fulfilling the expectations of the advertisers. "We're in an era where - we've made a commitment to our advertisers to a schedule. Advertisers have an expectation. It's not just about the ratings anymore. It's about our relationship with our advertisers and what their expectations are."

Dallas Mavericks' owner and media entreprenuer Mark Cuban has definite opinions about a lot of things, and in this wide-ranging interview with TVWeek.com, he talks about everything: why he doesn't care about what people think of him, the NBA, Broadcast.com, ESPN, HDTV, and the future of television advertising. There's video of the interview, and it's in four parts.

The interview is pretty good (though I can't agree with his admiration for Dennis Rodman), but I'm not sure about the odd camera angle. It's like watching an old episode of Batman, with the weird low camera angle looking slightly upward toward Cuban and the interviewer.