Ex-Disney CEO BREAKS SILENCE on Bob Iger & The Truth About Disney | PBD Podcast #864

Bob Chapek (0:00)

You just signed my death warrant. What I should have done is seen the smoke on the horizon.

In the beginning, I saw what happened to Jay, I saw what happened to Tom, but I'm different. That's not gonna happen to me. I think he got a taste of retirement, or frankly, AKA, less relevance, and I don't think he liked it. He didn't like being the color commentary guy. He wanted to be the play-by-play guy.

Patrick Bet-David (0:29)

He looked miserable sitting next to you.

Bob Chapek (0:32)

And I knew that I was gonna have a rough time, and then it just started piling on. When I knew I really had a problem is when he did the New York Times article. By the way, I had no idea it was coming. He didn't tell me. His publicist didn't tell me.

And it's my understanding that the board didn't even know. I'm at home, and someone calls me and says, you lost your job already?

SPEAKER_3 (0:53)

members brought back Bob Iger to lead a CEO.

Bob Chapek (0:56)

You signed my execution papers. How do I recover from this? Disney clearly screwed it up the first time around. From then on, it was a death by a thousand cuts.

SPEAKER_4 (1:04)

The king of Hollywood is back for a second time.

Bob Chapek (1:05)

It's not a miracle that I lost my job. It's a miracle that it took three years.

Patrick Bet-David (1:10)

Was there ever a conversation that we effed up behind closed doors pushing too much LGBTQ to kids and families?

Bob Chapek (1:17)

There was plenty of conversation as to what was the right correction for the company. When I got the CEO job, I was concerned that this could create a backlash.

Patrick Bet-David (1:28)

Are you long by on Disney?

Bob Chapek (1:31)

I'd have to see where Josh is going to take it. I think it's going to take some courage.

Patrick Bet-David (1:35)

He has to confront Iger.

Bob Chapek (1:37)

He has to confront legacy management decisions. He has to be bold. He has to have courage.

Bob had a lot of support from Loyalist on the Board.

Patrick Bet-David (1:47)

The four Board members that he replaced from Eisner.

Bob Chapek (1:49)

I think Bob was always very, very confident that he can have his job back whenever he wanted.

Patrick Bet-David (1:56)

He hasn't called you since.

So I'm going to ask you an indirect way of helping our guys, our production team, that works so hard, get a raise. Do you want to help them get a raise? This is how you can help us out. 49% of you watch our podcasts, that our editors work so hard. Producers, cutters, all of them, our production team, 32 of them that work here, they work very, very hard to deliver a good quality to you. If you enjoy our show and you want to help this thing get bigger so we can take our talent that we have in-house to support this production all the time and maybe even give them a raise, then please subscribe to the channel that allows us to get more viewership and indirectly it makes bigger opportunities for our current team that we have. Thank you so much. So Disney, the story of Disney for the audience that doesn't know, did you pursue it? Was it accidental? Did it happen where there was a job opening? Hey, babe, maybe we should think about it. How did that happen?

Bob Chapek (3:06)

Good question. So I was talking to a friend and I said, I really feel like I need to get back to California because I had spent a little bit of time with HJ. Hines in Long Beach. I really would like to get back to California. Cincinnati is great, but...

And he said, well, I have a friend who just applied for a Director of Marketing job at Disney. He didn't get the job, but I know there's one that's open.

So I just wrote a letter to the hiring manager and interestingly enough, I got a call back. And when I got the call back, it was only like maybe five days later, they said, well, we have a job, but we're not really hiring right now. We're going to be hiring in like three or four months. And I didn't want to let that opportunity go. So I stuck my foot in the door before she can shut. I said, I have a commercial shoot on my current job in Los Angeles next week. Would you mind if I just stopped by one day, as long as I'm going to be in town and just say hello?