Another compressed upfronts “week” is in the books, a three-day bender in New York with media and tech companies pitching their wares to advertisers.
As with the NFL Draft or a venture capitalist’s early-stage bets, winners and losers can’t be determined overnight. But there always are initial takeaways and impressions, along with the dawning awareness that one upfront seller will soon be acquired by another.
Before the Cannes Film Festival, Emmy campaign season and summer box office take the spotlight, Deadline plopped a generous handful of Alka-Seltzer tablets into a glass and took measure of this year’s TV-and-streaming spectacles. Here are a few of the ups and downs during the Monday-to-Wednesday blitz:
The notion that “this could have been an email” has recently morphed into “this could have a been a PowerPoint.” Spurred on by the leap into streaming, many companies in the past seemed to believe it was imperative to drum data points into the minds of the masses, with charts and graphs elbowing out the traditional sizzle reels and trailers. Thankfully, at least this time, the showbiz-oriented sentiment of old largely prevailed over numbers, and the week was blessedly preceded by nearly two months’ distance from the notoriously stat-happy NewFronts.
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VIPs resisting a mingle with the unwashed masses is a phenomenon as old as the entertainment business itself, but the schism over who parties with whom has seldom felt wider than it did this year. Amazon’s return to the Beacon Theatre for its upfront was another starry affair, with Michael B. Jordan, Chris Pratt and Oprah Winfrey sharing the stage. On the way to the New York Public Library after-party, though, Amazon clearly dropped off most top execs and talent at a more exclusive setting, leaving Diplo and Shaboozey, the night’s DJ and musical performer, respectively, as the official bash’s main boldfaced names.
The pullback, following fete-free events by NBCUniversal and Fox with YouTube’s two-tiered bash, stood in sharp contrast to the approach taken by Netflix and Disney. At the latter pair’s upfronts, execs from the CEO on down (plus a number of stars in Disney’s case) didn’t seek refuge behind velvet ropes.
Disney stayed in the groove at North Javits Center, putting on another end-to-end gold-standard upfront. The company dished out news, flexed with movie stars like Anne Hathaway and Robert Downey Jr., and threw a lavish, cruise ship-sized after-party.
Netflix, for its part, leveled up in its fourth year of pitching buyers. It is now well into the “walk” phase of its self-described “crawl, walk, run” process of entering the ad business. Not counting the first year, which was held virtually due to Covid, this was the best-executed show, with the company’s usual haul of programming announcements (plus big NFL news) combining with talent not just showing up but showing out. The setting, at newly opened Sunset Pier 94 Studios, also was an upgrade.
Let’s start by noting some positives. Late-night host Seth Meyers crushed again with his roast set; ad sales chief Mark Marshall delivered another customarily wry bit in a video built around the conceit of him getting tattooed with brand messages; and there was a rare Vin Diesel sighting in the wild. But NBCUniversal, coming off blockbuster upfronts in 2024 and 2025 featuring Wicked, Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary special, the Olympics and the Super Bowl, was not in the finest fettle. A prolix, two-hour running time was padded by song-and-dance numbers that faltered despite ordinarily winning talent like Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, hosts of the Las Culturistas podcast, as well as Tina Fey and Jane Krakowski. Overall, it made for a bloated start to a packed week.
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NBCUniversal subsidiary Telemundo held an energetic celebration of its upcoming year, anchoring the Rainbow Room bash around its Spanish-language rights to this summer’s World Cup. In presenting the soccer tournament, the Hispanic media unit is collaborating with its colleagues at flagship streamer Peacock, and offered upfront guests a demo. Marshall and NBCU News Group chairman Cesar Conde were among the execs in attendance. In earlier upfront times, the schedule and industry dynamics used to allow for more events like this, where the hard sell was replaced by the simple encouragement of a good time.
Paramount, which has not put on a conventional, full-tilt upfront since 2022, stumbled that year by linking CBS franchise 60 Minutes with the planned duration of its presentation, using the show’s stopwatch logo as a framing device.
Warner Bros Discovery, similarly, vowed to get through its pitch in an hour. “Put us on the clock,” sales co-chief Ryan Gould urged the audience. We did, and largely due to some vamping by Craig Ferguson and other talent, they missed the target by more than 10 minutes.
Fox’s upfront was marked by a new venue (New York City Center) and a rare appearance by CEO Lachlan Murdoch. Perhaps the biggest standout aspect of the presentation, though, was Tom Brady. The Hall of Fame quarterback is the No. 1 Fox Sports NFL analyst. On air, he has made the same kind of methodical improvement as he did as pro, when he went from sixth-round draft pick to seven-time Super Bowl champion. And the upfront showed why.
A much looser, more improvisational side of Brady practically jumped off the stage. Brady stood next to Erin Andrews and Rob Gronkowski as the latter plugged an upcoming Fox holiday telecast. The QB didn’t hesitate calling an audible and playing up his ex-teammate’s hot tub party-filled days playing college football at the University of Arizona. “Ho, ho, ho – the NFL is back for Christmas on Fox,” Gronkowski said. Brady gave a sardonic smile and seized on the line. “Feels like he’s back at Arizona,” he cracked, earning a huge laugh.
Amazon and TelevisaUnivision achieved new and absurd levels of commercial hype by interrupting their own marketing pitches … with even more hype. Each ran ad-within-ad segments consisting of testimonials about advertising tech tools and the companies’ reach. Amazon’s was a dialogue between Summer House alum Paige DeSorbo and one of the company’s own ad execs. TelevisaUnivision gave screen time to marketing execs from companies like Microsoft and Cologuard maker Exact Sciences.
YouTube did continue its tradition of putting a chief marketing officer (this time, Coach’s Joon Silverstein) onstage, but that segment was a palatably brief third-party interlude. Any aftertaste from Silverstein was immediately washed away by a rousing set by pop star Chappell Roan.
Peter White contributed to this report.
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