Upfronts!

This is the week!

Watch this space for links to blather about the TV Upfronts: (assuming, of course, that you are under a rock someplace and only get your daily fix of witty repartee and withering media critique from DMG ...)

CBS - dateline: Tuesday 5/13/08 CBS picks up six for 2008-09 slate-Variety

ABC - dateline: Tuesday 5/13/08 ABC announces fall schedule-Variety ... No surprises here. "Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday are mostly the same as last season." Obviously taking no risks here ... with 6 of the top 10 performing shows in Primetime season-to-date this year - we're not gonna see anything but staying the course. Irrespective of any individual performance ratings declines year-over-year.
ABC - dateline: Wednesday 5/14/08ABC Building Emerging Media Labs to Track Ad Viewership-AdAge ... so, this was one of the smarter things I could have expected from any of the Networks this week. It is the thing that matter's ... how to optimize messaging for viewer engagement. Now .... how much is ABC gonna charge me to participate ... that's the question.

NBC - dateline: Wednesday 5-14-08 NBC Universal Gives Media Buyers an 'Experience'-AdAge ... and by most accounts it sucked! Americas biggest media buyers and clients wandering around NBC's "tradeshow" hallways trying to make sense out of what it is NBC sees themselves doing these days.
"I think they're looking for a forum that's commensurate with the de-emphasis of the upfront," said Steve Calder, chief media officer at MediaHub, part of Interpublic Group od Cos.' Mullen. ... or maybe that NBC just wanted to de-emphasize a woeful lack of new programming that matters.

Of course ... maybe not so bad as ...

CW - dateline: Wednesday 5-14-08 ...who didn't even bother to trot out anything ... either recurring programming or new. Who knows ... maybe they were just afraid of being picketed by Gossip Girls fans who can't even watch their favorite show online when they want to (since CW yanked it from online because they were losing money and audience on air due mainly to the migration online) ... and wasn't that CW's whole pitch a year ago about embracing the new world of online distribution?

dateline: Thursday 5-15-08 OK, ok, ... so DMG missed the boat a bit here ... because CW did do an Upfront (just no simualcast in Detroit - no love - but then we likely don't deserve that much since Autos and CW seem to be opposite planets)... pitched a tent over by Lincoln Center ... had Maroon 5 play ... CW gets early start on fall season-Variety ... and really centering on returning shows. "It's the first show we developed exclusively for the CW," Ostroff said of "Gossip Girl." "It's amazing the kind of press and attention that it's gotten." ("hey! give me back my show" ... as spoken by my 13 year-old daughter who watches all her TV online.)

CBS - dateline: Thursday 5-15-08 Good old "steady-eddie" CBS ... CBS returns to comedy roots-Variety ... finally! something I can relate to in these Upfronts. CBS comes out with, ... well ... just some solid new programming. No talk of new integration hype ... no engagement measurement BS ... just some good program ideas. The "Bruckheimer into Bruckheimer" strategy for Thursday night with new "Eleventh Hour", coming out of CSI, is a pretty strong bet for CBS.

FOX - dateline: Friday 5-16-08Fox announces primetime slate-Variety ... and, FOX closed the Upfront week out strong ... with the announcement of what looks like a gripping J.J. Abrams series ... Fringe.

Final Take: CBS and FOX concentrated on why this week should ever exist in the first place ... new programs. And why shouldn't we have some fun with what makes our industry most compelling ... entertainment programs. Guess what, nobody outside of us, gives a damn about metrics and engagement and all that hoo-ha! People love their TV shows ... CBS and FOX put some emphasis on that.
ABC ought to be commended, though, for stepping up to the plate to provide a vehicle for us to feed our metrics jones. The very idea of the emerging media lab and experimenting with new viewer formats is at very least intriguing ... and probably exactly what we should all worry about.
Because as much as people love their programs ... they seem completely unintrigued by advertising. So it figures strongly that marketers and broadcasters alike should tackle this very engaging problem in order to keep this game alive.

Loved it!

- DMG

UPDATE: 5-19-08 CBS Fall Premieres