NEW YORK — One of the sure signs of spring is the annual promotion of the next fall TV season. There are signs all over Manhattan, including illuminated ads on top of Yellow Cabs promoting the return of Will & Grace. That’s a straight-to-series reboot NBC will flaunt next week when all the US networks unveil their
If this podcast sounds a little muffled, blame the upfronts. Fleeing Wednesday’s Shaw press event, I ducked into what I thought was a hotel parking entrance off Yorkville when CHML producer Jacob Smith reached me on mobile. A burly security dude chased my back into construction hell just as Scott Thompson opened with hockey talk. Scott asks
It took 52 minutes to drive to Rogers 2015 upfront this morning in downtown Toronto. The sizzle reel they showed press this morning also lasted 52 minutes. Coincidence? I think not. Rogers lucked into last season’s hottest show–Empire–and hope to build on that strength this year as they swing back towards imported content and away
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane…it’s Shaw stealing Supergirl! On Monday, Shaw announced their U.S. acquisitions for fall and among their prize imports is the big super hero buzz show from CBS. Supergirl stars Melissa Benoist as the DC Comics superhero and Calista Flockhart as her bitchy boss. This is a bit of
In Canada, the annual television network “Upfronts” are a few weeks later than they are in the States. Our Upfronts are really “Uplaters.” They also don’t draw anywhere near the same amount of advertising revenues. Canadian advertisers tend to commit less of their budgets in the spring, playing more of a wait and see game. Since
On Monday, Fox announced its new schedule for fall. You can find their full details here. Short order “event” series and comic book cross overs continue to emerge as the network survival strategy. That the reality/talent show ship has sailed is signaled with the announced demise of American Idol, for six straight seasons the most-watched
The boldest moves of the just-concluded Canadian network television upfront week in Toronto? It may have been the moves Bell Media boss Kevin Crull made on stage Thursday at the Sony Centre. Crull exploded the image of Bell execs as staid number crunchers by suddenly turning into Ryan Seacrest. He began as a three-dimensional hologram
So you’re the L.A. Kings. It’s the Stanley Cup finals, and all of a sudden you’re told that your No. 1 goalie and two best defenceman are either sidelined, in the penalty box or not available on this night. What do you do? That is pretty much the predicament CTV finds itself heading into the