Upfront Update: A+E Sails on the Great Hudson Ship - Simon Applebaum

Unorthodox measures were the takeaways of last week39s upfront action in New YorkFor USA Network holding court last Monday night at Lincoln Center tent grounds the stars did all the speaking while the executives did all the schmoozing Headliners of USA hits from Psych to justrenewed Fairly Legal summarized for attendees the channel39s most ambitious slate of original series output evertwo summer premieres Suits and Necessary Roughness two fallwinter 2012 debuts Common Law and Eden and 13 shows in development including comedies for the first time in years and excluding reality series upon peril of alerting competitive copycatsAE39s presentation originating from the ultramodern IAC Building next to the West Side Highway and the Hudson River last Tuesday night went one step further All the new programming details were disclosed beforehand whether involving AampampE Network History Channel or Lifetime Instead of saving news for this company executives treated the crowd to a new logo with replacing ampamp and tag line quotLife Is Entertainingquot followed by a feature miniconcert from Grammy and Oscarwinning performer Jennifer HudsonHere39s the review of AE39s effortVenue Much about the IAC Building39s lobby commands your attention from the 120foot long video wall stretching into the performance area to the aqua box sofas all over AE went all out to make the max of the space including colorful blue and orange chandeliers hanging all over to nicelyseparated food and beverage stations so the crowd didn39t cluster so big in one spot Waiters lined the main entrance with blue vodkalemonade glasses Best food veggie and chicken dumplings coffeeflavored chicken or pulled pork served in small glasses both garnished with lettuce Big downer not enough seats and tables in the performance area for the crowd on hand Most people wanting a good view had to stand the whole time or move up or down the video wall to see the action captured by a camera crew Grade BPresentation Thanks to all that programming news released earlier AE CEO Abbe Raven and ad chief Mel Berning kept their remarks short focusing on the quotLife Is Entertainingquot motif and intent to deliver quotbetter networks more targeted contentquot in Berning39s words Just one video on display the obligatory multinetwork montage en route to Hudson and opening act Dan Men Appreciate the desire to cut the verbage however don39t think people would mind Raven or Berning devoting a minute or two to recaps of what39s coming from AampampE History and Lifetime especially if they didn39t catch the press releases earlier Not if you accompanied the verbage with snapshots or videos Grade BplusPerformance Special Hudson has graduated from dreamgirl to real star She belts out songs like no one39s business her new I Remember Me CD is tremendous and has the crowd39s support at every turn Before her remake of the Mac Davis favorite I Believe in Music Hudson promised to hear the audience join in the chorus Sure enough she steps off the stage and had anyone close to her mike warbling most in good form Her set was so sensational that no one no one felt cheated they didn39t hear And I Am Telling You I39m Not Going her patented Dreamgirls showstopperA boy band parody for some a buttondownhardhat boomer pop trio for others Dan Men led off with a fun set Lots of energy and a willingness to take no prisoners whether rap while hulahooping or Shakira gyrations Have two questions for the lead singer why go scatological on your last song nice cover of Total Eclipse of the Heart and load up on Fwords Was it really necessary Remember the crowd you39re entertaining Grades Aplus for Hudson A for Dan Men until the last song B with the last songNews Value With all the series announcements released in advance looked like this event would be devoid of news Not quite Berning divulged that quotbig plansquot for diginets Biography Channel Lifetime Movie Network History International and History en Espanol will be launched this fall with considerable new content at each channel sure to follow More on all that closer to launch time My question is anything ever going to happen to Lifetime Real Women the Lifetime spinoff service that runs like the Energizer bunny with very little publicity and almost no outside promotion Grade BplusOverall Grade Bplus Hudson39s star turn was the engine running this show Take more time not much more to pinpoint forthcoming network highlights plus make the performance space more comfortable and the grade makes the A zoneTake a deep breath people We39re heading into next week39s barrage of broadcast netcable netLatino net presentations All kicks off next Monday with NBC and Fox and among us MediaBizBloggers we39ll break it all down for you net by net Keep your eyes on this siteit39s going to be a wild marathonUntil the next time stay well and stay tunedSimon Applebaum is hostproducer of Tomorrow Will Be Televised the Internet radiopodcastdistributed program about the TV scene The program runs live MondaysFridays at 3 pm Eastern time noon Pacific time over wwwblogtalkradiocom Replays are available 247 at wwwblogtalkradiocomsimonapple04 or on podcast downloadable to any mobile device through ITunescom and other Web sites arranged by Sonibyte Have a question or reaction Email it to simonapple04yahoocomRead all Simonamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Tomorrow Will Be TelevisedCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerMediaBizBloggers is an openthought leadership blog platform for media marketing and advertising professionals companies and organizations To contribute contact Jackmediadvisorygroupcom The opinions expressed in MediaBizBloggerscom are not those of Media Advisory Group its employees or other MediaBizBloggerscom contributors Media Advisory Group accepts no responsibility for the views of MediaBizBloggers authors

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Upfront Update: A+E Sails on the Great Hudson Ship - Simon Applebaum

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