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It’s the most hectic time of the year, with upfront week upon us.
Next week in New York, all of the major broadcast networks will present their new programs to advertisers, as well as ESPN, ESPN Deportes, Turner, NBCUniversal Cable and all five Spanish-language networks.
Many years ago, the upfront season used to be limited to just this one week, but this year the upfronts officially started on February 25 with Nickelodeon and runs through the end of next week, with NBCU Cable. After that, the negotiating begins in earnest, with media buyers placing major bets and major money across the broadcast networks’ schedules.
To some extent, the purpose of upfronts remains what it always has been: to reveal new shows and schedules to advertisers so they can buy advertising inventory at the lowest possible prices. That’s still the point of the upfronts, but these days, everybody is getting into the act, from digital to cable to broadcast.
What the broadcast networks desperately need are new comedy hits with CBS’ The Big Bang Theory now ending season eight and Modern Family ending season six. There are plenty of comedies on networks’ development slate, and that was true last year as well but development was rumored to be weak from the beginning and that played out over a season of mostly comedic flops.
On the drama side, what worked last year were superhero adaptations (The Flash, Gotham) and shows with diverse casts (Empire, How to Get Away With Murder, Black-ish, Jane the Virgin) so look for more of the same this year.
Everything is still in flux, but upfront-related broadcast announcements started flying fast and furious on Thursday. Here’s what we know so far:
One of the more interesting upfront stories to emerge thus far is Hulu’s likely two-season pick up of The Mindy Project after three seasons on Fox.
Subscription video on demand (SVOD) services swooping into save shows is becoming more common (Community on Yahoo, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix). What’s not known is whether these shows have a syndication afterlife if they leave the broadcast network too early — in Mindy’s case, one season short of the typical four seasons that sitcoms need — and head to SVOD. Could these shows still be sold to broadcast or cable buyers once there’s enough episodes?
It hasn’t happened yet, but not too long ago the prediction was that sitcoms would never go to SVOD because they are too expensive, there are too many episodes, there’s no barter, but we’ve now seen both Friends and Seinfeld head to SVOD providers in lucrative deals. What that means is that everything is on the table right now, and all the rules are available to be broken. If someone is willing to pay for it, it’s up for sale.
Fox had this season’s biggest hit, Empire, and a minor success with Will Forte’s Last Man on Earth, but otherwise, the network has plenty of holes to fill come fall.
NBC had trouble launching comedies last year, with shows such as A to Z and Bad Judge having short runs. So far, the network has picked up three comedies from Universal Television: People Are Talking, starring Mark-Paul Vosselaar and Tone Bell; Crowded, starring Patrick Warburton and Carrie Preston; and Superstore, starring America Ferrara and Ben Feldman. Those join Coach and Eva Longeria’s Telenovela.
Most of The CW’s schedule is clicking, mostly on the strength of genre fare such as Arrow, The Flash and The Vampire Diaries. Jane the Virgin - once a perfect match for The CW’s young female-focus - now is a little off-brand for the network but the show’s star won the Golden Globe, bringing the network its first major award.
Most of the decisions at The CW already seem to be made, with all of the above and The 100, Beauty and the Beast, The Originals, Reign, Supernatural and iZombie all renewed. Heart of Dixie is ending its four-season run.
On Thursday, the network picked up another superhero spin-off, Legends of Tomorrow, also to be executive produced by Berlanti; Cordon, about a group of people who are quarantined after a major epidemic breaks out in Atlanta while the people who love them who have to remain outside; and My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, co-created by and starring Rachel Bloom, which The CW took off the top of corporate half-sibling Showtime’s discard pile.
CBS tends to play its development cards close to the chest, but it did place the first series order of the season: Warner Bros.’ Supergirl, which will be executive produced by Greg Berlanti Productions and star Melissa Benoist.
Here’s where to be and when to be there next week in New York (tip of Brief’s hat to Deadline for its very organized schedule):
Monday:
NBC, 11 am, Radio City Music Hall
Fox, 4 pm, The Beacon Theatre
Azteca America, 6 pm, Best Buy Theatre in Times Square
Estrella TV, 7 pm, Bryant Park Grill
Tuesday:
ESPN, 9:15 am, Minskoff Theater
Univision, 11 am, The Lyric Theatre
ABC, 4 pm, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center
Telemundo and NBC Universo, 6 pm, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall at Time Warner Center
Wednesday:
ESPN Deportes, 9 am, Hearst Tower
Turner, 10 am, The Theater at Madison Square Garden
CBS, 4 pm, Carnegie Hall
Thursday:
The CW, 11 am, New York City Center
NBCUniversal Cable, 4 pm, Javits Center North Hall
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