Executive Seeks to Leave NBC for ABC, Sources Say

Jamie McDermott, one of the highest-ranking women in network television, has asked to be released early from the two-year contract she signed with NBC Entertainment in May as senior vice president of prime-time series, according to sources familiar with the situation.

It is unclear why McDermott, 31, made the request and whether NBC would grant it. NBC would not comment, and McDermott did not return repeated telephone calls to her office Tuesday.

But Hollywood sources said Capital Cities/ABC Inc. is considering McDermott for the job as president of ABC Entertainment, now held by Ted Harbert. Harbert, who has held the job since 1993, presided over ABC’s rise to first place in the prime-time ratings last year and its fall to No. 2 behind NBC this season. Without a major hit in the last two years and with ratings on the decline, Harbert has been the subject of heated rumors in recent weeks that he might be replaced by Cap Cities’ new owner, Walt Disney Co., which completed its acquisition of the company earlier this month.

ABC would not comment.

Some sources speculated that Harbert would be promoted to a new position as chairman of the division in a restructuring that would reshape ABC to resemble NBC. Under such a scenario, Harbert would have a position similar to the one held at NBC by Don Ohlmeyer, the president of NBC West Coast who oversees the entertainment division as well as cable, daytime and Saturday morning TV.

In a separate development Tuesday related to the merger, Disney named Steve Burke to a new position at Cap Cities, making him the first Disney executive to be appointed to a high-level position at the TV company since the merger. Burke, president of Euro Disney, was named executive vice president of Capital Cities/ABC, effective March 1. He will report to President Robert Iger.

Cap Cities executives said he will help oversee integration of the company into Disney. Analysts said he is singularly qualified for the job because of his intimate knowledge of both companies.

His father, Daniel Burke, was president and chief executive of Cap Cities until he retired in 1994. The younger Burke is credited with founding the Disney stores, one of the most profitable segments of the company, and over the last four years with helping to restructure the troubled Euro Disney theme park outside Paris, which turned a profit in fiscal 1995.

Burke, 37, is widely praised within Disney as an up-and-coming executive. Analysts say he is one of half a dozen executives his age being groomed by Disney Chairman Michael Eisner for top positions.