Paramount today held its first upfront presentation since the company last held court at Carnegie Hall in 2022. Taking place almost a month ahead of the traditional upfront week, the event at the Paramount Theatre on the historic Los Angeles studio lot was the first upfront for New Paramount following the August acquisition by Skydance.

It marked the upfront stage debut for most of the presenting executives, including Paramount CEO David Ellison, who did opening remarks just a couple of hours after his appearance at CinemaCon in Las Vegas; Chief Revenue Officer Jay Askinasi; as well Chair of Direct-to-Consumer Cindy Holland, whose 18-year Netflix tenure wrapped before the streamer got into the ad business; and CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach, who was promoted to the job months after Paramount Global’s last upfront presentation.

Addressing ad buyers in a formal way for the first time, Holland, in an on-stage conversation moderated by Askinasi, laid out her programming strategy for Paramount+.

“One of the things that we’re really focused on, the first few green lights, the decisions that we made when we got to Paramount, was thinking about female forward dramas in particular, even though it’s true that The Madison is sort of the first example that was already here,” she said.

The Madison, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, comes from prolific Paramount+ creator Taylor Sheridan. It recently launched as Sheridan’s biggest series debut, with Holland calling Pfeiffer “a revelation.” The push for female-driven shows, which Holland has telegraphed before, is designed to balance out the streamer’s current slate which is dominated by Sheridan and Star Trek series.

They are known for their male appeal even through Holland noted that “the audience for [Sheridan’s] Landman is about 50% women, but people perceive it in a slightly more male lens.” Sheridan’s other P+ hits include Tulsa King and Mayor of Kingstown.

Holland gave a couple of examples of some of Paramount+’s biggest buys under the new regime so far, all in bidding wars.

“We know that female forward ensemble shows, dramas, legal thrillers, soapy thrillers, are things that we were looking for,” she said. “So the first two things that we bring through that lens were a series called Discretion, starring Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning — it’s a mentor, mentee relationship set in a legal world — and also a limited series starring Anne Hathaway called Fear Not.”

Once the slate is balanced out, Holland will have the focus spread out as the goal for the streamer she shared on Day 1 after the merger was to “make sure that we’re offering programming for everybody.”

She reinforced that commitment today and confirmed the volume ramp-up signaled by Ellison who had promised increased budget for scripted originals.

Speaking of big sport franchises carried by Paramount, Holland highlighted NFL games, simulcast with CBS.

“Obviously, the NFL is a huge audience funnel, very large, very diverse, and we want to continue to program against different segments, and the job is to increase the programming,” she said. “We’re also going to welcome the BET+ community to Paramount+ in June. It’s a privilege and an honor for us to welcome that community and their stories and bring them to a larger audience.”

As Deadline reported in March, BET+ will be folded into Paramount+ in June.