By TIM ARANGO
c.2010 New York Times News Service
At its height, NBC was the very model of what a television network should be. With iconic programming, enviable ratings and spectacular business success, the peacock network delivered plenty of laughs along the way with “The Cosby Show,” “Seinfeld” and “Friends.”
Nobody is laughing anymore.
Today the network is in shambles, brought down not just by the challenges facing broadcast television – fragmenting audiences, an advertising downturn – but also a series of executive missteps that have made its prime-time lineup a perennial loser and, most recently, turned its late night programming schedule into a full-blown media circus that threatens the lucrative “Tonight Show” franchise.