How bad was NBC's fall lineup this year? So bad that, of the network's four new shows, only Kath & Kim is still in production. So bad that NBC is now apparently firing everybody except Ben Silverman. So bad that Jeff Zucker just announced to investors that the network is considering cutting back the number of hours, or possibly even the number of nights, it airs programming. "Can we continue to program 22 hours of prime-time? Three of our competitors don't," said Zucker. "Can we afford to program seven nights a week? One of our competitors doesn't." Still, while acknowledging the network's crappy ratings and stopping just short of mentioning how terrible Knight Rider is, Zucker refused to cast any blame: "We have not had a good fall at NBC. I don't think that's lost on anyone, but in no way have we lost confidence in [NBC Entertainment co-chairmen Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff]." In a hilarious, semi-related story, an apparently unconcerned Ben Silverman was seen hitting the slopes yesterday at the Deer Valley Celebrity Skifest in Deer Valley, Utah.

Zucker says NBC may scale down programming hours [Reuters]