NBC: Back on Track with a Traditional Upfront Presentation and Several Hot New Shows

By TV / Video Download Archives
Cover image for  article: NBC: Back on Track with a Traditional Upfront Presentation and Several Hot New Shows

After two years during which NBC told us everything about the way it did business simply had to change, especially the development of costly scripted programming, the network pulled a complete 180 this week, putting together one of its most traditional fall schedules in years – and also one of its most promising in recent memory.

After two years during which NBC told us everything about the way it did business simply had to change, especially the development of costly scripted programming, the network pulled a complete 180 this week, putting together one of its most traditional fall schedules in years – and also one of its most promising in recent memory.

NBC has also since 2007 been determined to discontinue its annual Upfront week presentation, but there it was on Monday, revealing its 2010-11 season plans to a room full of advertising executives and journalists, just like it did in the old days. Granted, a ballroom on the third floor of the Hilton Hotel wasn't as lavish a setting as Radio City Music Hall, home to so many previous NBC Upfront events, but it seemed a perfect locale for a network that is trying to put the multiple misfires of recent years behind it to explain its programming and scheduling strategies. It reminded me of those much-missed, relatively intimate Upfront presentations at the Sheraton Hotel by The WB, but without the Dean & Deluca coffee and all those pretty young stars.

Read Jack Myers Media Business Report exclusive Upfront Coverage by Ed Martin and Simon Applebaum available to corporate subscribers. Re-distribution in any form, except among approved individuals within your company, is prohibited.

After a memorably hilarious pre-taped opening by Alec Baldwin, in character as NBC's pompous Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Programming Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock, the network's presentation was all about clips from its new shows, and toward that end the network did an excellent job of showcasing its product and generating much positive buzz in the process. Introductions and other remarks by Jeff Gaspin, Chairman, NBC Universal Television Entertainment and Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios, were brief, the clips were generous, and the presentation hummed right along, slowing down only when Late Night host Jimmy Fallon took the stage to improvise silly songs about advertisers' clients that were neither funny or clever. (When it comes to Upfront entertainment he's no Jimmy Kimmel.)

The presentation was otherwise very short on star power, but producers and stars from most of NBC's new and returning shows (including Baldwin) were on hand to meet and greet the crowd during a casual luncheon that followed in an adjacent hall.

Collectively, NBC's efforts resulted in much positive buzz about several of its new fall and midseason scripted series, including two that are already the most talked about new shows on any network: The Event, a serialized thriller about an ordinary guy unwittingly caught up in a global conspiracy and the biggest cover-up in the history of the United States; and UnderCovers, a sexy, action-packed drama about married former CIA spies who are happily running a successful catering business when they are thrust back into the world of espionage, from hit-maker J.J. Abrams and Josh Reims. Clips from both shows thrilled the audience.

I had concerns about the viability of a series like The Event, given the failure of so many similarly structured series in recent years (especially those about global threats and conspiracies), but Jason Ritter, the ingratiating star of the show, assured me that series creator Nick Wauters has been working on the show's bible for many years and has plotted compelling storylines for several seasons. Here's hoping.

I also had concerns about UnderCovers, because the clips we saw seemed extremely reminiscent of another Abrams spy-thriller, Alias, which wore out its welcome at least two seasons before it ended. But Abrams told me that fans of his other shows might be surprised by the overall tone of this one, which will be much lighter and far less edgy than his earlier efforts. "It's like Hart to Hart," he said.

While much of the buzz at the luncheon centered on those two shows, the other 11 new fall and midseason series NBC showcased were also largely well received. That is to say, there didn't appear to be a flat-out loser in the bunch, and I couldn't find anyone who truly disliked anything they had seen.

Someone at NBC has obviously paid attention to Fox's reliably exciting Upfront events of recent years, especially its outdoor marketing and promotion. Fox had cows on 55th Street when it introduced Fringe two years ago and cheerleaders and utilized giant hot air balloons last year to promote Glee, generating thousands of impressions from passers-by while impressing advertisers, as well. NBC on Monday had a fleet of rainbow colored taxi cabs lined up on 53rd Street outside the Hilton, each adorned with the NBC logo and its marketing phrase of the moment, "more colorful."

I have no proof of this – I only know what I saw – but it appeared to me that the newly frisky folks at NBC decided to maximize their investment in painted cabs by sending them north after their event to 74th Street and Broadway, the location of the Beacon Theater, home this year to Fox's Upfront presentation. Fox had several people positioned in the immediate area holding those giant eye-catching balloons they brought out last year for Glee, each one now featuring the logo of a different Fox show. But they had to compete for impressions with those NBC cabs as they drove back and forth just a few feet away.

Click for NBC's 2010-2011 Fall Schedule.

Copyright ©2024 MediaVillage, Inc. All rights reserved. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.