Another member of the old boys’ club: Zucker’s replacement at CNN is an old Harvard friend

One of the CNN executives stepping up to replace outgoing boss Jeff Zucker is his old Harvard friend and ‘longtime loyalist’ with an uncannily similar career trajectory.

Michael Bass – among three people named interim network leaders Wednesday – is, like Zucker, an ivy league alumni with vast experience at competing networks including NBC, where Zucker once served as the company’s chief executive.

Until a permanent replacement is named, Bass will lead the network alongside veteran executives Amy Entelis and Ken Jautz. 

Bass, a married father of three, took over as interim executive producer of the Today show in 2000 after Zucker was named NBC Entertainment’s president. 

When Zucker was promoted to the company’s top boss in 2007, Bass’s career path kept pace as he became NBC’s vice president of strategic initiatives. 

Zucker also tapped Bass to serve as co-executive producer of Katie Couric’s eponymous talk show in 2012. 

In an yet another similarity, both graduated from Harvard in the mid-1980s and Bass followed Zucker to CNN. 

Katie Couric, who has worked with both men, described their different management styles in her explosive tell-all ‘Going There’.

‘Jeff Zucker’s feet may only have been size 9, but he left huge shoes to fill when he became president of NBC Entertainment,’ she wrote. ‘He’d handpicked his friend Michael Bass, a fellow Harvard guy and longtime loyalist, to step in as acting EP at Today.

‘Michael was an incredibly nice and a solid producer but lacked Jeff’s shrewdness and pizzazz (yeoman-like was a word that got used), which showed in the broadcast. Suddenly it felt like slow, boring, blah.’ 

Bass most recently served as CNN’s executive vice president of programming. 

Outgoing CNN chief executive Jeff Zucker announced his resignation Wednesday after his ‘consensual relationship’ with a longtime colleague was exposed 

Katie Couric, who has worked with both Michael Bass and Jeff Zucker, described their different management styles in her explosive tell-all ‘Going There’

Zucker’s secret partner Allison Gollust (pictured in 2011) was once expected to succeed him as CNN’s chief executive

Zucker stepped down from the role Wednesday after an investigation into colleague Chris Cuomo’s professional misconduct revealed that Zucker had been involved in a secret relationship with longtime colleague Allison Gollust.

In Zucker’s announcement to staff on Wednesday, he said: ‘As part of the investigation into Chris Cuomo’s tenure at CNN, I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I have worked with for more than 20 years. I acknowledged the relationship evolved in recent years. I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong.’ 

Last February, an NBC News article hinted Gollust – CNN’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer – would be tapped to lead CNN upon Zucker’s retirement.

‘As Zucker’s most-trusted lieutenant for decades, she has been involved in or had a front-row seat to every major decision of his tenure at the network, from international deals to talent management and programming,’ the network reported, citing CNN sources.

CNN named Amy Entelis (left), Ken Jautz (right), and Bass (not pictured) as joint interim chief executives

Until a permanent replacement is named, Bass will lead the network alongside veteran executives Amy Entelis and Ken Jautz. 

Entelis, CNN’s executive vice president for talent and content development, joined the network in 2012 and previously spent 30 years working for ABC News. 

The Columbia School of Journalism grad has worked as a producer for News World Tonight With Peter Jennings, and was later tapped to lead recruitment efforts for the network’s most popular news programs.

Jautz, the company’s executive vice president, joined the broadcaster as its Germany bureau chief, where he covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, revolutions in East European countries, and the end of the Soviet Union, according to his online bio.