An NBC page is a person usually in his or her early twenties working in various departments of the NBC television network during a one-year period as a training ground for careers in television broadcasting and entertainment.[1] In addition, pages work as tour guides and studio audience ushers at NBC Radio City Studios in New York City or NBC Universal studios in Burbank, California.[2]
NBC began the page program in 1933 at its Rockefeller Center headquarters,[3] later expanding it to their west coast studios in Burbank.[1] The Page Program is the longest running franchise under NBC. In the 1950s, NBC also offered page positions at their owned-and-operated stations, such as WRC in Washington, D.C. where Today Show personality Willard Scott was an NBC page.
Selection is said to be highly competitive, with only 60 to 80 pages selected a year out of over 7,000 applicants.[4] Past pages describe the interview process as grueling, as the network seeks the best corporate image to present to the public. In addition to requiring candidates to be college graduates, NBC says it prefers those with "related broadcast experience such as a college campus radio station, demonstrated leadership, strong work ethic, and outgoing personality".[1]
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, and production in a variety of shows and special projects. Most 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. Notable former NBC pages include:[2]
The NBC sitcom 30 Rock, produced by former Saturday Night Live head writer Tina Fey, portrays a zealous, smiling, do-good NBC page named Kenneth Parcell (played by Jack McBrayer), who appears as a page through the shows five seasons despite pages usually only being employed for a year. Throughout the show it has been hinted that Kenneth is actually immortal and has been working as a page since the 30's (an NBC personality from that period recognizes him, only for Kenneth to tell him he must be mistaken.)