The cable networks of NBCUniversal presented at their first-ever joint upfront on Thursday and while there was little news, there was lots of celebrities—168 of them, to be exact, according to NBCU Cable Entertainment Chair Bonnie Hammer—champagne (mostly for Bravo’s Andy Cohen to drink) and confetti.
The presentation was hosted by Cohen, E!’s Giuliana Rancic and Oxygen’s Nick Cannon.
Refusing to exit the news or the reality-show spotlight for even a second, Bruce Jenner will star in a new docu-series for E!, following the former Olympic athlete as he transitions to a woman. Jenner taped a voiceover ad for E! just for upfront attendees and the show is scheduled to premiere this summer. As one would expect, E!‘s true royal family, the Kardashians, were in the house, with Kris and Kylie Jenner and Khloe Kardashian vamping on the red carpet prior to the presentation.
E!’s fictional royal family, The Royals, starring Elizabeth Hurley, will return for season two in November. The show has quietly become the fifth-highest rated scripted series currently airing on all of cable, behind only HBO’s Game of Thrones, HBO’s Silicon Valley, A&E’s Bates Motel and AMC’s Mad Men. (Who knew Silicon Valley was doing that well?)
USA previewed two previously announced new series, Queen of the South and Colony and took the opportunity to promote the upcoming Mr. Robot, which is already awash in marketing prior to its June 24 premiere, and Complications, starring Jason O’Mara.
Most of Esquire’s announcements were made last week, with the male-skewing net picking up its first original scripted show, Spotless, from Tandem Productions in conjunction with France’s Canal Plus.
Perhaps the group’s biggest announcement was also its wonkiest: NBCU Cable will tap into Comcast set-top box data to more closely identify exactly who is watching the networks’ fare. Data was mentioned so many times in NBCU’s presentation that some (namely Deadline’s Lisa de Moraes) became worried that Cohen, who promised to turn it into a drinking game, might not make it through.
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