Upfront Update: Mundo on B'Way, Discovery's Mini-Engagement And TBS/TNT, the Year After - Simon Applebaum

Our latest trio of presentation recapsreviews starts withTelemundoVenue For the first time Spanishlanguage TV39s two main players brought their annual upfront events to Broadway theaters In Telemundo39s case the Al Hirschfeld on W 45th St named after the legendary cartoon chronicler of the stage world The lobby may be a tight fit for a big crowd but the theater is gorgeous With Telemundo the stage featured a raised white platform in the shape of a quotTquot with the vertical end reaching into the audience like a gangplank Grade 5 JacksPresentation A comprehensive mix of factoids on the Latino marketplace with videos of upcoming series put forward in arresting fashion One initiative was especially effective setting up each telenovela clip with actors recreating a 30second bit against a computergenerated recreation of the show39s key location Another class touch bringing out celebrated Latino singer Jose Jose subject of an upcoming novela based on his life for a quick acknowledgment Grade 45 JacksNews The Voice will produce a spinoff Ninos edition for Telemundo featuring kids ages 6to14 A second new reality competition series Yo Me LlamoMy Name Isgives amateur singers or songwriters a shot at stardom by recreating the musical icon inspiring them Of the six novelas running this coming season El Rostro de la VenganzaThe Face Of Revenge appears the most innovative of the group containing elements of The Fugitive and 21 The network will offer more than 170 hours of Summer Olympics coverage from London and introduce Todos Somos HeroesWe Are All Heroes where musical stars salute community heroes in various walks of life Sister net mun2 may have a summer winner in Dub Latino a weekly look at celebrity car culture Grade 5 JacksHost New Telemundo president Emilio Romano handled his upfront debut in smooth energetic fashion assisted by chief operating officer Jacqueline Hernandez Grade 4 JacksOverall Grade 45 Jacks Keep the Broadway production values coming next year and beyondDiscovery US Hispanic Discovery en EspanolDiscovery FamiliaVenue You rarely see the auditorium inside The New York Times39 center building on 8th Ave a block away from Times Square quite like the way people catching this event did The stage resembled a bubbly diorama the kind you see in art museums or for modern dance performances or as backdrops in aquarium tanks With this diorama you project videos in the center instead of hanging a big screen up Grade 45 JacksPresentation Here39s a word I39ve never used in these columns to describe what went downminimalist This was as simple and bare a situation as you39ve ever seen with these gatherings Two executives wax about Discovery39s Spanishlanguage channels for a few minutes then go right to a parade of videos one after another with no pause for context or elaboration Return to the stage for some closing thoughts and send everyone home In someone else39s hands this could be ingredients for a fiasco Because Discovery has few peers making video clips which keep your eyes glued to a screen as witnesses of its annual April multinet event easily vouch you enjoyed the clips Yet you were disappointed Discovery39s execs didn39t pipe in at all Grade 25 Jacks News At least two of Discovery en Espanol39s more notable new seriesboth madeintheUSwere left off the clip showcase Batalia De Ingenios pits 12 people in creative mental and physical endurance tests for the opportunity to take a year off from work and do as they please while Hard Kicks depicts the daily life of a professional soccer league Here39s where some words from a Discovery exec could fill in the gap Separately we did get to learn about 2111 an ambitious series using a variety of production techniques including 3D and computer animation to visualize how Latin America cities function 100 years from now The program returns for a second season this fall and Discovery should consider running it in English on Discovery Channel or Science Channel Another news series worth placement on radar screens 10 Anos Menos10 Years Younger on Discovery Familia Grade 3 JacksHost 0 JacksOverall Grade 3 Jacks Videos alone even as tremendous as Discovery produces them doesn39t an effective showcase makeTNTTBSVenue If the event highlights the pair of entertainment channels from Time Warner39s Turner division you know it will be at Hammerstein Ballroom the opulent showplace on 34th St near Penn Station and Madison Square Garden Last year Hammerstein played host to an event where if anything technically could go awry it did from no sound on videos to no videos running on cue and the audience left in the dark for minutes As if to make amends the room looked brighter than usual in blue cloudy tones with purple drapes on the ceiling Grade 5 JacksPresentation It takes a lot of guts for a programmer to open their show reminding attendees of the mess they endured the previous year That39s right open the show Takes even more guts to rehash and try laughing it off So via the best opening video of any upfront yet TNTTBS did just that with bits involving Conan O39Brien other personalities from both channels and network bigwigs led by president Steve Koonin and top programmer Michael Wright quotStill suffering from posttraumatic upfront performancequot O39Brien noted to Koonin wearing a classic deadpan frown And for a kicker Koonin wheeled out a 1950s overhead projector on stage staying apologetic and having the projector plus a quotcardiac defibulatorquot on hand if snafus erupted this year They didn39t not one Repeat not one TNT then TBS reeled off scenes from their new series accompanied by brief welcomes or remarks by cast members on stage One top line came from new TBS series star Deon Cook of Black BoxquotFinally black people will get to speak up and know everything about the Bethany Frankel showquot Sullivan ampamp Son star Steve Byrne offered two quotMy mother is Asian my father is Caucasian so that makes me pause Caucasian It took two years to get this show on the air It takes two minutes to make a babyquot O39Brien returned live near the end to deliver more riffs on TV and life including a hilarious bit on Craigslist entries from media heavyweights Grade 5 JacksNews TBS and TNT let all the upcoming series premiere details out of the bag preevent Did offer clips of their respective new reality programs just a week after press releases came out Grade 2 JacksHost Wright did most of the hosting passing the baton off to Koonin and other Turner executives every so often He39s become one of the more polished programming executives holding court staying clear and on message Grade 45 JacksOverall Grade 45 Jacks Comeback kid of the 2012 upfront scene One new series announcement not leaked to the press the week before and you39re looking at the 5 Jack trick5 Jacks Excellent4 Jacks Very Good3 Jacks Good2 Jacks Fair1 Jack Poor0 Jacks Worse than badNext up The CW Vme and MTV Tr3sUntil the next time stay well and stay tunedSimon Applebaum is producerhost of Tomorrow Will Be Televised the weekly Internetdistributed radio program covering the TV scene Simon cal be reached at simonapple04yahoocomRead all Simonamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Tomorrow Will Be TelevisedCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Upfront Update: Mundo on B'Way, Discovery's Mini-Engagement And TBS/TNT, the Year After - Simon Applebaum

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Upfront Update: Mundo on B'Way, Discovery's Mini-Engagement And TBS/TNT, the Year After - Simon Applebaum

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