Upfront Update: FX Bowls On: B-Plus. Bravo Stays Real-ity: C-Minus - Simon Applebaum

March wrapped with two more upfront events to catch last week in New York Again we begin this pair of reviews with who went first namely FXVenue Lucky Strike Lanes on the corner of W 42nd St and the West Side Highway isn39t your typical bowling establishment Consider it the Apple store of the sport in NYC with computer scoring of frames neonlighted lanes and HD screens above the pins For the second straight year FX invited advertisers here for a presentation followed by a bowloff against teams from its original series stars included Nice touch FX inviting the executive producers of those shows and their spouses in at least two cases to bowl alongside their castmates and mix in with the ad crowd FX executives hint this will become an annual affair Those not into bowling had pool tables to vent their competitive juices and food to chow down Grade APresentation Wellpaced on one hand flawed on the other FX president John Landgraf joined by Fox Cable Networks ad sales chief Lou La Torre and associate Bruce Lefkowitz did a good job spelling out ratings growth at the network then taking attendees on a timeline for new series introductions However while there were clips galore on the lineup of feature films ahead nice breakdown by target audience only one new series clip was offered more on that in the next section When you declare three new dramas will premiere in the coming year as Landgraf did and nothing to show about them even though one pilot was completed that39s a shortcoming Also given FX39s new deal for college football this fall finalized the week before someone at Fox Sports could have supplied a brief promo to capitalize on the news One way to compensate for the clip hole scenes from the final season of Rescue Me and upcoming fall episodes of It39s Always Sunny In Philadelphia and Sons Of Anarchy Grade BminusNews Value That original series clip getting play was for Winfred the new summer comedy starring Elijah Wood looks like a winner There39s three contenders for those original drama premieres right now and of the three American Horror Story cocreated by Ryan Murphy Glee and NipTuck looks like it will launch first this fall quotThe premise psychological terrorhorror knocked our socks offquot Landgraf told me afterward quotWe can39t put a show on the air that39s derivative of other people39s shows and this isn39tquot He39s so sure this series will make it that a writing team is on board to join Murphy and Glee cocreator Brad Falchuk Outlaw Country mix of family crime and Nashville music scene pilot in hand and Powers cops police superheroes and supervillians in a future society pilot to be produced soon are the other two drama contenders On the comedyanimation side Archer creator Adam Reed will collaborate with some of Sunny39s writers on Townies to be produced in Atlanta Grade AminusSpecial note This applecart of drama contenders is subject to be shaken up at any time thanks to several developments coming to light since FX39s presentation last week An Oliver Stone executiveproduced project on quotdarkhorsesquotpeople in biz planting fake news storiesis on fast track along with an excongressman political drama headlining former The Riches star Eddie Izzard The Collective the production company working with Izzard on this show has two other FX drama concepts under consideration Separately the channel is the newest member of New Voices the union of programmers and the Humanitas Prize organization formed a few months ago to develop series pilots from emerging writers A progress report on New Voices in a future columnHost Landgraf La Torre and Lefkowitz handed their presentation duties well Give Lefkowitz extra credit for one last acknowledgment on Lights Out and Terriers FX39s criticallyacclaimed new dramas that didn39t make the grade with viewers over the past halfyear Both shows quotwere worth taking the riskquot on and although they failed quotwe39re proud of themquot he said Grade Aminus Overall Grade Bplus You suspect FX and parent News Corp will do everything possible not to be flatfooted on the original series clips again next year In bowling terms FX threw a gutter ball when it mattered amid an event clicking on every other cylinderSecond up Bravo Venue The channel went deep in Manhattan39s Soho district 82 Mercer St to be exact for its event Came over as an expanded swanky penthouse floor with plenty of lush black sofas purple or green pillows and white tables Part of the floor was cordoned off for a special TV studio Bravo used for live inserts on the finale of Top Chef AllStars that night where fans in NY and other cities could interact with the channel39s assortment of reality series stars Grade BplusPresentation Two grades on this one For the presentation itself incomplete Bravo did not allow most reporters yours truly included to attend the presentation Instead a redcarpet area was set up along one corner of the room to conduct interviews with channel executives and celebrities for about 90 minutes That leads to the second grade a big F for not having one channel executive talk to yours truly and many other journalists present about the new shows ahead Executive vice president Andy Cohen in charge of original programming did talk to some TV crews but moved off the carpet before speaking to other TV crews and the printradioblogger journalists Public relations officials assured Cohen would come back and converse before taking down the carpet He didn39t If Cohen had pressing matters how about Frances Berwick Bravo Media president or someone stepping in Huge gaff Grades Incomplete for presentation F for Cohen39s disappearanceNews Value Of the 10 new series introduced at this upfront four deal with relationships mixed with therapy Interior Therapy With Jeff LewisThe TherapistsMiss AdvisedProject Soulmate Had Cohen or another Bravo program exec been available I would have asked about this surge in relationship content and why go forward in this direction Separately for the first time in two years there was no news on scripted series prospects Bravo has commissioned two pilots in 2009 and 2010 with nothing making the air Has Bravo sworn off scripted for good along with if so why Two questions deserving an answer in public We39ll raise one morewhere was Inside The Actor39s Studio No James Lipton on the carpet nothing on the awardwinning series39 future in the press release Answer please Grade BminusHost Couldn39t judge because we didn39t witness the presentation Grade Another incompleteOverall Grade Cminus No access to the presentation for whatever the rationale can be tolerated if you39re able to get the what39s so and why so behind a channel39s future from that channel39s decisionmakers You raise doubts about what39s coming if you don39t make those decisionmakers available somehow and that39s what happened hereUntil 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 Mondays and Fridays at 3 pm Eastern time noon Pacific time over wwwblogtalkradiocom with replays 247 at wwwblogtalkradiocomsimonapple04 Podcasts are downloadable through ITunescom and other Web sites arranged by Sonibyte Have a question or reaction Email it to simonapple04yahoocom Read 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: FX Bowls On: B-Plus. Bravo Stays Real-ity: C-Minus - Simon Applebaum

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