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Publicly, Comcast stood behind NBC Universal president and CEO Jeff Zucker during the recent late-night fiasco. But privately, the cable carrier is said to be planning for his dismissal as soon as its acquisition of NBC Universal is finalized. That's according to Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood, whose distaste for Zucker is well known. She claims that it will take "minutes, not months" for Comcast to fire Zucker once regulators have approved the deal. If true, perhaps this is a bit of good news for Zucker: There are still a few hurdles left. Regulators are getting an earful from smaller cable companies worried what impact the Comcast acquisition will have on sports programming. The American Cable Association, while not going so far as to oppose the deal, says it wants guarantees that Comcast will charge them the same rates for sports channels as it charges itself (Comcast is one of the nation's biggest cable carriers). Comcast owns Versus and Golf Channel as well as some regional sports networks. For his part yesterday, Zucker was busy churning out a memo to NBC Universal employees informing them about the companies' transition plans. In the full text printed on Deadline, Zucker notes, "After close, NBCU will operate as a separate company that will be consolidated with Comcast, but not integrated into Comcast."