Business

NBCU lays off 450, shakes up ‘Today’

Comcast’s NBCUniversal is laying off hundreds of staff in another round of belt-tightening.

The pink slips will take place across the board and will affect about 450 employees, or 1.5 percent of the total staff, according to insiders.

Earlier this year, NBC cut about two dozen staffers on “The Tonight Show” to trim the show’s budget. Host Jay Leno took a 50 percent pay cut.

Cable giant Comcast acquired a 51-percent stake in NBCU from General Electric last year, and may buy GE’s remaining 49 percent stake in 2014.

“They’ve become like General Electric,” said one source. “They’re cost cutters.”

Separately, the network also shook up management at NBC’s “Today” after the once-dominant morning show slipped in the ratings.

“Today” veteran Jim Bell will leave the show and take on a full-time gig producing NBC’s Olympics coverage.

“Bell is being carried out on a stretcher,” said one observer.

He will be replaced by Alex Wallace, who will oversee all four hours of “Today,” which fell to No. 2 behind ABC’s “Good Morning America” recently, but has been narrowing the gap.

Wallace will likely be joined by a No. 2 producer, Izzy Povich, who produced MSNBC’s “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” and now works on “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell.

Insiders say that Povich hasn’t been confirmed because current “Today” co-hosts Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie have not yet signed off on the move.

The two are said to be concerned about any accusations of political bias that may be levied against Povich.

The changes are the first public moves under the new chairman of news, Patricia Fili-Krushel.