{{Short description|12-month paid fellowship with NBC}} {{Advert|date=January 2024}} [[File:NBC Page Uniform (6279769410).jpg|thumb|The distinctive NBC page uniform, with a photo of Jack McBrayer, who portrayed NBC page Kenneth Parcell on ''30 Rock''.]] The '''NBC Page Program''' is a 12-month paid fellowship at the NBCUniversal studios in New York City and Universal City, California.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pageprogram.nbcunicareers.com/|title=NBCUniversal Page Program {{!}} NBC Universal Page Program|website=pageprogram.nbcunicareers.com|language=en|access-date=2018-05-07}}</ref> Pages contribute to various teams while on business, consumer, and content assignments. East Coast pages also give tours and work in audience services at NBC Studios in New York City. Notable people who began their careers as NBC pages include Gregory Peck, Eva Marie Saint, Regis Philbin, Michael Eisner, Ted Koppel, Trevor Moore and Aubrey Plaza.<ref name="hollywoodreporter">{{cite news|last1=Rose|first1=Lacey|title=21 NBC Pages Turned Hollywood Players Tell All: Johnny Carson Sightings, Calls From the President, TV Cameos|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/21-nbc-pages-turned-hollywood-players-tell-all-johnny-carson-sightings-calls-president-tv-c|access-date=April 11, 2018|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=April 17, 2017|language=en}}</ref>
==Background== [[File:NBC Page giving tour in 2009.jpg|thumb|NBC Page giving a tour in 2009 at Rockefeller Center.]] NBC began the page program in 1933 at its Rockefeller Center headquarters,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=cCUbAAAAIBAJ&pg=2057,997741&dq=goodman+ace&hl=en|title=Radio Chiefs Train Studio Guides For Bigger Posts In Broadcasting|author=Steinhauser, Si|date=8 May 1935|publisher=The Pittsburgh Press|access-date=27 November 2010}}</ref> later expanding it to the West Coast studios in Universal City. In the 1950s, NBC also offered page positions at their owned-and-operated stations, such as WRC in Washington, D.C. where future ''Today Show'' personality Willard Scott was an NBC page. Selection is highly competitive, with only 212 pages selected a year out of more than 16,000 applicants.<ref name="Page Program">{{cite web|url=http://www.nbcunicareers.com/page-program|website=NBCUniversal Careers|access-date=9 December 2014|title=Home | NBCUnicareers}}</ref> With around 1.5 percent of applicants accepted to the program, becoming an NBC page is more competitive than gaining admission to Ivy League universities.<ref name="wapo">{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/campus-overload/post/life-of-an-nbc-page-isnt-quite-like-30-rock/2011/05/11/AFiTX00G_blog.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | first=Jenna | last=Johnson | title=Life of an NBC page isn't quite like '30 Rock' | date=2011-05-12 | archive-date=2018-04-12 | access-date=2017-09-05 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180412001048/https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/campus-overload/post/life-of-an-nbc-page-isnt-quite-like-30-rock/2011/05/11/AFiTX00G_blog.html | url-status=live }}</ref> Past pages describe the interview process as grueling, as the company seeks the best corporate image to present to the public.<ref name="NYT">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/nyregion/14page.html|title=For NBC Pages, 'Please Follow Me' Is a Fervent Wish|last1=Buckley|first1=Cara|date=October 13, 2008|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 11, 2018}}</ref>
Pages regularly get to work on such programs as ''The Tonight Show'' and ''Saturday Night Live''. Pages also rotate through assignments in public relations (PR), marketing, development, TV music services, and production in a variety of shows and special projects. Many pages go on to careers with NBC or other broadcast media, and a number have become celebrities or leaders of the industry in their own right.<ref name="NYT"/>
==In popular culture== In the NBC sitcom ''30 Rock'', produced by former ''Saturday Night Live'' head writer Tina Fey, Jack McBrayer portrays a zealous, smiling, do-good NBC page named Kenneth Parcell, who appears as a page through the show's seven seasons despite pages usually only being employed for a year.<ref name="hollywoodreporter"/> And while pages are usually in their 20s, it is a running joke on the show that Kenneth is unrealistically old (indeed, that he is immortal) based on his looks. (For example, in Season 5's "When it Rains, it Pours", Kenneth is seen nostalgically packing away a signed photograph of Fred Allen from 1947, dedicated: "Kenneth, you're the TOPS!" into a box marked "NBC Memories 1945-1967".)
The Team Members of the theme park attraction Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon, at Universal Studios Florida, are dressed as NBC pages as part of the theming of the attraction, which is housed in a replica of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where NBC Studios are located.
==Notable NBC pages== [[Image:Garroway.jpg|thumb|upright|Dave Garroway, former NBC page]] Notable former NBC pages include:
*Tex Antoine (1943), weather forecaster *Chuck Barris, TV producer and personality *Pierce Brown, science fiction author, ''Red Rising'' saga *Jim Case, television director and producer *Clay Cole (1957), producer/writer and television host <ref name=NYT2>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/arts/television/24cole.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=clay%20cole&st=cse|title=Clay Cole, Host of TeenageDance Shows, dies at 72|work=The New York Times|access-date=27 December 2010|first=William|last=Grimes|date=24 December 2010|archive-date=3 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403005930/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/arts/television/24cole.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=clay%20cole&st=cse|url-status=live}}</ref> *Michael Eisner (1963), former CEO of The Walt Disney Company<ref name="NYT"/> *Dave Garroway (1938), ''Today Show'' host<ref name="News">{{Cite book|editor-last=Murray|editor-first=Michael D.|title=Encyclopedia of television news|year=1998|pages=336|publisher=Greenwood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J3fhcUnCC1AC&q=dave+garroway&pg=PA88|isbn=1-57356-108-8|access-date=July 15, 2010}}</ref> * Sara Haines (2000), ''The View'' co-host, former NBC's ''Today Show'' correspondent<ref name="SAQSPRING2010">Barber-Just, Christina, [http://alumnae.smith.edu/cms/?spotlight=live-on-today-2 "Live on Today: Sara Haines '00 makes her mark on America's number one morning show"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023058/http://alumnae.smith.edu/cms/?spotlight=live-on-today-2 |date=2016-03-04 }}, ''SAQ'', Spring 2010, Smith College Alumni Association</ref> *Edd Hall (1979), ''Tonight Show'' announcer *Kate Jackson, actress, ''Charlie's Angels''<ref name='NYT' /> *Stu Kerr, television personality *Ted Koppel (1960), ABC-TV news reporter<ref name='NYT' /> *Bill Leyden, game show host *Trevor Moore (2003), comedian, ''The Whitest Kids U' Know''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://prestonandsteve.libsyn.com/daily-feed-03-21-13 |title=WMMR's Preston and Steve Podcast |publisher=Prestonandsteve.libsyn.com |date= |accessdate=March 7, 2015 |archive-date=March 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130327040047/http://prestonandsteve.libsyn.com/daily-feed-03-21-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref> *Sona Movsesian, media personality and executive assistant to Conan O'Brien *Regis Philbin (1955), TV personality, ''Live with Regis and Kathie Lee'', ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire''<ref name='NYT'/> *Aubrey Plaza (2005), actress, ''Parks & Recreation'', ''Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'' *Gene Rayburn, ''Match Game'' host<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://americanprofile.com/articles/gene-rayburn-match-game/|title=Announcer Gene Rayburn|date=2003-10-05|work=American Profile|access-date=2018-11-06|language=en-US}}</ref> *Joan Rivers, comedian *Eva Marie Saint (1944), actress, ''The Trip to Bountiful'', ''On the Waterfront''<ref name='NYT' /> *Willard Scott (1950), ''Today Show'' weather reporter, creator and original performer of Ronald McDonald<ref name=MSNBC>{{cite web|title=Willard Scott — Weather Reporter and Centenarian|publisher=MSNBC|date=2004-12-10|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna6694523 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041211192233/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6694523/ |url-status=live |archive-date=2004-12-11 |access-date=February 4, 2008}}</ref> *Michael Shure, Current TV host<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mediaite.com/tv/the-war-rooms-michael-shure-dishes-on-current-tv-tom-brokaw-and-dan-abrams/ |title=The War Room's Michael Shure Dishes On Current TV, Tom Brokaw, And Dan Abrams |publisher=Mediaite |date=2013-06-24 |access-date=2013-09-03}}</ref> *Lara Spencer, ''Good Morning America'' co-anchor, ''Nightline'' and ''ABC News'' correspondent<ref>{{cite news |url= https://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204488304574433241217390638 |title=Lara Spencer and 'The Insider'|first= Sarah E.|last= Needleman|work=The Wall Street Journal |date= 2009-09-29|publisher=Dow Jones |location=New York |issn=0099-9660 |access-date=11 December 2013}}</ref> *Trey Wingo, ESPN anchor<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.espnfrontrow.com/2015/05/wingos-days-as-a-letterman-page-started-the-path-to-espn/ |title= Wingo’s days as a Letterman page started the path to ESPN |publisher=ESPN |date=2015-05-19 |access-date=2025-07-15}}</ref> *Bruce Willis, actor<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bill Murray recalls Bruce Willis being an NBC page during his 'SNL' days |url=https://ew.com/bill-murray-recalls-bruce-willis-being-nbc-page-when-he-was-on-snl-11706701 |access-date=2026-03-06 |website=EW.com |language=en}}</ref> *Efrem Zimbalist Jr., actor, ''77 Sunset Strip'', ''The F.B.I.''<ref>{{cite news |title=Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Star of '77 Sunset Strip' and 'The F.B.I.', Dies at 95 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/arts/television/efrem-zimbalist-jr-star-of-77-sunset-strip-and-the-fbi-is-dead-at-95.html |access-date=June 9, 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=May 3, 2014}}</ref>
== See also == * NBC * List of NBC personalities
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.nbcunicareers.com/pageprogram Page Program Website] *[http://www.tonightshowinfo.com/TonightShowNBCJobs.htm "Tonight Show" page information] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080131194731/http://www.tonightshowinfo.com/TonightShowNBCJobs.htm |date=2008-01-31 }} * [http://www.nbcunicareers.com/page-program NBC Universal Page Program career information page and quick facts]
Category:Mass media occupations Category:Entertainment occupations Category:NBC Category:Mass media in New York City Category:Universal City, California