Don Ohlmeyer

Donald Winfred "Don" Ohlmeyer Jr. (born February 3, 1945) is a former American television producer and president of the NBC network's west coast division. He is best known for firing Norm Macdonald from Saturday Night Live’s "Weekend Update", after Macdonald made a series of jokes centered on O.J. Simpson's murder acquittal. Ohlmeyer was good friends with Simpson, and publicly proclaimed his belief that Simpson was innocent.

Currently, he is a professor of television communications at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He served as ombudsman for ESPN.com for 18 months; that term ended in January 2011.

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Ohlmeyer grew up in the Chicago area and attended Glenbrook North High School.

Ohlmeyer began his career with ABC Sports. A disciple of Roone Arledge, he worked on Wide World of Sports, was the first hired producer of Monday Night Football, created "The Superstars", and also produced and directed three Olympics broadcasts (including the Munich Olympics).

He later moved to NBC as executive producer of the network's sports division, a position he held from 1977 to 1982. Over those five years, he created the popular sports anthology series SportsWorld and served as Executive Producer of NBC coverage of the Super Bowl, World Series. He also earned notoriety for the prime-time series 'Games People Play' and the made-for-television movie 'The Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story.' Ohlmeyer became well known for expanding the network's sports coverage as well as introducing innovative production techniques. He launched 'NFL Updates,' NCAA Basketball 'Whip-arounds,' and instituted NBC's live coverage of 'Breakfast at Wimbledon.' Ohlmeyer is credited with conceiving the one-time experiment of airing a 1980 NFL telecast without announcers.

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