Capra Leaves ‘Today’ Show Despite Ratings Success : Television: Executive producer will be joining NBC’s entertainment department in January.

The ongoing turmoil at NBC’s “Today” show resulted in another departure Thursday when executive producer Tom Capra said he was leaving both the series and the troubled news division to join the network’s entertainment department.

NBC said that Capra, 50, under whom the ratings for “Today” have risen since Katie Couric joined Bryant Gumbel as co-anchor this year, will create TV movies, miniseries and “reality-based programming” for the network’s in-house production unit, starting in mid-January, when he leaves “Today.”

Capra, whose departure was expected as rumors spread that he was in disfavor with top NBC News brass, including division President Michael Gartner, said that he was leaving “Today” because “I want to. My job is finished. They asked me to bring back the show, and I have. And I would rather live in L.A. than New York.”

The scrappy, gregarious producer, former news director at KNBC Channel 4 here and son of the late film director Frank Capra, took over “Today” two years ago when it was a snake pit of ego and personality problems, with Jane Pauley being forced out as Gumbel’s co-anchor and Deborah Norville replacing her--amid heavily negative public reaction.

Ratings for “Today” immediately dropped. ABC’s “Good Morning America” has been No. 1 for every week of 1990 and 1991. But “Today” recently has tied “GMA” for the top spot several times, and has looked much stronger with Couric and even her substitute anchor when she was on maternity leave, Faith Daniels.

During the fourth quarter of this year, “GMA” is averaging a 4 rating and attracting 19% of the audience. “Today” is close behind with a 3.7 rating and 18% of the audience. “CBS This Morning” has a 2.7 rating and 13% of viewers. (One rating point equals 921,000 homes.)

“The show is hard to imagine now without Katie,” Capra said. “She’s done a good job. She’s made Bryant more human. She plays off him very well.”

Capra said that during the period when Pauley was replaced and Norville took over, “Today” seemed to be “falling off a cliff--people not liking each other openly on air. There was a lot of tension on the air between Bryant and Deborah. You could see it. We changed the content--made it newsier--and we also changed the cast as well as the set. The old set was a reminder that Jane was no longer on the air.”

Despite the rise in ratings, reports persisted that Gartner and others in top NBC News management were dissatisfied with Capra. Said one source: “He was probably unnecessarily blamed for problems. Some people there felt the show looked too much like local news.”

Another source, however, said that Capra “is probably glad to get out of the division, which (some people) feel is not run very well. ‘Today’ is profitable and getting ratings. But the people from General Electric (which owns NBC) are still asking, ‘Why are there so many people on the show? When can we cut back?’ It’s no secret that G.E. is pressuring everyone throughout the company to reduce their staffs.”

Capra, who led KNBC’s news department to dominance before being summoned to revive “Today,” also had to deal with the lingering dissension on the series caused by a private internal memo by Gumbel that was leaked to the press. But the producer said that, despite reports to the contrary, he and Gumbel get along well and that the co-anchor was not responsible for his departure.

Some sources said that Gumbel favors the 26-year-old supervising producer of “Today,” Jeff Zucker, as the next boss of the series. NBC did not immediately name a successor to Capra. A source close to Gumbel said that the newsman “likes Capra” but that Zucker is “in high favor” with Gartner.

Gumbel is currently in what is described by insiders as a “tough” contract renewal negotiation with NBC at a time when TV brass in all organizations are trying to hold down salaries, especially those of major, multimillion-dollar anchors. The Disney organization reportedly has expressed interest in acquiring Gumbel--possibly even with Capra as his producer.

But Capra said he’s happy with his move to NBC’s entertainment division: “I regard it as a reward after two years in this particular trench.” He also was given responsibility recently for NBC’s “Sunday Today” show as the network continues its drive to get maximum work from fewer people.

Capra said that NBC President Robert Wright proposed the new entertainment job to him. The producer said his past experience fits in with NBC’s desire to present more reality-based movies and series that follow the trend to “the ‘c’ word--cheap, meaning holding down costs.”