Upfront Update: Oxygen's Glee Time and Ovation Thinks it Can Dance - Simon Applebaum

Before checking in with our latest Upfront reviews a few followup thoughts on the Bravo half of last week39s columnFirst kudos to MediaBizBloggers colleaguereviewer Ed Martin for getting into Bravo39s Upfront presentation and his commentary on it In case any reader of this site was confused by the sight and tone of two columns on the same event be clear that Ed and I filed our pieces separately and didn39t confer beforehand Obviously I would have graded Bravo differently in the presentation category something other than incomplete if I saw with my own eyes what Ed witnessedAt the end of my column three questions were raised about Bravo39s programming strategy going forward We can now answer one of them Bravo remains a scripted series player A week after the event the network announced development of Face Down a Lionsgatecreated drama about a makeup artist with a dysfunctional lifestyle Sounds like the network39s answer to Mad Men and given Lionsgate39s track record with that series Face Down may be the first original nonreality Bravo series to reach our eyeballs I39m now left with another question Why couldn39t this be showcased at the Upfront Oh wellLet39s move to last week39s activity starting with OxygenVenue Second time in a month for Gotham Hall the bank edifice turned allpurpose rotunda near Herald Square Yellow was the color in vogue for Oxygen39s presentation keeping with the network39s quotLive Out Loudquot attitude placed all over the walls and all over the stage The audience sat on clear plastic chairs with clear tables in front Grade AminusPresentation Glee to the right left and in front of you That39s the way Oxygen wanted it showcasing both offFox carriage of the series and the June 12 debut of new reality miniseries The Glee Project where the winner among a group of highschool performing arts students gets a sevenepisode guest role next season A group of Gleelike in both diversity and spirit singerdancers opened things up with a performance of Small Town Girl and series costar Darren Criss closed out with a threesong set one on solo keyboards another on guitar that rocked the house In between the loudness lived via Paris Hilton and other personalities introducing clips from their nearfuture programs on the network Grade AminusNews Value The huge focus on The Glee Project almost overshadowed everything else in Oxygen39s pipeline For example news about a program just as promising in appeal in My PostGrad Life following a group of recent college graduates in Boston and Philadelphia faced with key choices about their lives and careers Another pair of notable benchmarks 75 new advertisers last year and 26 percent more firstrun content in the year ahead including originals on Sunday nights Grade BplusHost It39s one thing to live out loud another to express out loudvery loud Oxygen president Jason Klarman and programming chief Amy IntrocasoDavis addressed the audience in voices that often came off way too hyper and unnatural I39ve seen both executives get their enthusiasm through without resorting to sound levels unknown to the human ear Calm down Grade BminusOverall Grade B The performers and the focus on Glee Project gave this event a cohesive theme and Glee Project looks like a summer keeper and if more attention was given to other Oxygen programs showcased at a lower decibel this event would be in AterritoryWe turn now to OvationVenue The executive dining room of Core Club located in midtownManhattan served breakfast for Ovation39s firstever public Upfront event reporters only Simple room design with brown woodcut walls and a big table Core Club whose street canopy has the wrong address on it did good with the food eggwhite ham omelet in this person39s instance Grade APresentation With quotYour Passion Your Inspiration and Your Dreamquot as the channel39s current tag line Ovation executives scored best with videotape illustrating the variety of arts content available yearround including theme weeks Give programming senior vicepresident Kris Slava points for breaking the content down to three categories insiders who are outsidersinnovators in their profession big artists before they were big communities working and pulling together for the common good Ad sales counterpart Liz Janneman contributed good stat info Where things went awry little detail and clips on individual series with one exception below Grade BplusNews Value So You Think You Can Dance reruns from the last two years will play on the network this summer timed with the current set of Fox episodes Ovation will start Dance in August as FridaytoMonday blocks of twothree episodes contextualized with inserts on how contestants have done since The network39s Web site will introduce a Dance portion featuring development of different dance styles tip and blogger columns Separately We39ll Take Manhattan Ovation39s first original madeforTV feature will premiere soon coproduced with the BBC More scripted TV to come at least movies Maybe Slava says Grade AminusHost Slava Janneman and chief executive Charles Segars touched the important bases in a relaxed manner Gave extensive time for QampampA and answered all questions Grade AminusOverall Grade Aminus The network is making the transition from modest independent to solid indie player The combination of Dance and an attentiongetting original program can take Ovation to the next stageUp ahead with April Upfronts Tru TV Scripps Networks Discovery Communications and BET Count on a lot of news from this quartet of playersUntil 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 available 247 at wwwblogtalkradiocomsimonapple04 Podcast editions run via ITunescom and 17 other Web sites arranged by Sonibyte wwwsonibytecom 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: Oxygen's Glee Time and Ovation Thinks it Can Dance - Simon Applebaum

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Upfront Update: Oxygen's Glee Time and Ovation Thinks it Can Dance - Simon Applebaum

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