TV’s Tough Upfront: More Video Rivals Will Fight For Fewer Ad Dollars

Paramore‘s Hayley Williams shared her stance against Ron DeSantis while taking the stage in New Jersey this past weekend (May 27).While headlining Adjacent Music Festival in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the frontwoman declared that anyone who votes for the Republican presidential candidate is “dead” to her.“I’ll be happy to tell you I’m very fucking comfortable talking politics,” Williams told the crowd. “If you vote for Ron DeSantis, you’re fucking dead to me.

EXCLUSIVE: Viewers can’t seem to get enough of The Drew Barrymore Show.

It’s highly likely there’s not a single person out there who doesn’t know the name Sydney Sweeney.The 25 year old probably has the Emmy winning drama series Euphoria to thank for that, not to mention her chaotic character Cassie who made her the star she is today. While Sydney had appeared in some pretty high budget productions prior to the HBO show, including Everything Sucks! and The Handmaid’s Tale, it wasn’t until she stepped foot in the fictional town of East Highland, California that people really started to take note of her talent. Which is why it’s so surprising that she has recently opened up about the fight she had to put up to get cast in Mike White’s satirical anthology series, The White Lotus.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CNN keeps feeding the mouths that bite it. As Warner Bros. Discovery has orchestrated massive changes and cuts to the popular news giant, a stream of producers, anchors and executives have left — some of their own volition, and many of them not. But no matter the case, a growing number of these now-former CNN die-hards are being scooped up by rivals including MSNBC, ABC News and CBS News. CBS News on Wednesday announced it had lined up Lisa Ling as a contributor. The veteran journalist spent eight years at CNN leading viewers through interesting issues as host of the documentary series, This Is Life,” which was cancelled amid a cutback of original programming that uses outside partners. ABC News on Wednesday announced that Brooke Bower, who had been managing editor of CNN Politics, was joining as executive producer of the Sunday politics show “This Week.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Brooke Bower, a veteran of CNN and MSNBC, will take the reins of ABC News’ “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” as its new executive producer, filling in a gap left by the tragic demise of the show’s previous leader. Brower, who had been managing editor of CNN Politics, will report to Kim Godwin, president of ABC News. Kendall Heath, who had been working as the show’s interim executive producer, was named executive producer of politics, reporting into Stacia Deshishku, ABC News’ executive editor, and will work with political director Rick Klein during the election season. “As the 2024 election season gets underway, I look forward to Brooke and Kendall working closely with the talented teams at ‘This Week’ and all our great reporters and producers in the Washington bureau, led by Jonathan Greenberger, and the political unit under the leadership of Rick Klein and Averi Harper, to bring straightforward political journalism to our viewers at a time when it’s needed more than ever,” Godwin said in a memo sent to staff Wednesday.

Ezra Miller is the star of Warner Brothers’ upcoming The Flash movie and they’ve been in the middle of lots of controversies over the past couple years that have made the film a tricky subject for the studio.

A dance to remember! Lacey Chabert gushed over reuniting with Will Kemp for their new mystery film — but he has competition for the title of her “favorite” Hallmark costar.

When it comes to nailing down Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren’s looks for the hit show "1923," Emmy Award-winning costume designer Janie Bryant has got it covered.  During an interview with Fox News Digital, Bryant detailed what it was like creating a historic look for Ford and Mirren’s characters -- married couple Cara and Jacob Dutton. "I'll never forget, I had my first fitting with [Ford] and he was like, ‘Janie, do you have a three-way mirror?’ I said, ‘Of course, Harrison … let me show you.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CNN will shift the bulk of its operations behind its Spanish-language efforts to Mexico City, scaling back production of content for linear television in favor of work aimed at reaching a younger audience that favors mobile video. The move is likely to mean the elimination of jobs in Miami and Atlanta, but will also result in a ramp-up of jobs in Mexico and Los Angeles, where CNN will aim to add more than staffers, according to a person familiar with the plans, which were disclosed to employees Thursday afternoon. CNN CEO Chris Licht had nodded to the future of the Spanish-language network in November at a town-hall meeting. At issue is how to maintain outreach to Spanish-speaking viewers at a time when the economics of big media companies are under intense scrutiny. CNN and its corporate parent, Warner Bros. Discovery, have already cut operations, but the question of how to keep CNN en Espanol under such conditions has been under debate for some time. In the past, discussions had been underway to shut down the cable network, which has only limited distribution of around nine million in the United States.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Many TV networks have struck measurement deals with VideoAmp, one of a handful of companies eager to provide an alternative to Nielsen’s tabulation of audiences. Now a company that buys TV time for blue-chip advertisers has done the same. Horizon Media, a large media-buying firm that works for clients including Corona and the National Football League, will use VideoAmp’s audience-measurement tools to help negotiate and transact ad deals between select clients and sellers for national linear TV inventory. Horizon will also use VideoAmp for planning, analytics, and measurement. “There has been a more meaningful movement this year to actually participate with alternative currencies and transact on them,” says David Campanelli, Horizon’s chief investment officer, in an interview. The bulk of the deals, he says, “are still happening on advanced audience targets, versus what we commonly think of with Nielsen ratings, which are demo and impressions counting.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Andrew Ross Sorkin is the co-creator of the Showtime series “Billions,” but he isn’t really known for drama in his professional life, just financial reporting. So it came as something of a surprise on Monday, when the CNBC and New York Times journalist got up on stage at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall to tout some of the dramatic fare that NBCUniversal was able to cobble together for the advertisers and media buyers assembled in the audience. It was all part of the industry’s annual “upfront,” when U.S. media companies try to sell the bulk of their advertising inventory before the release of their next cycle of programming.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Noah Lyles might be one of the nation’s fastest athletes, but there’s one thing he was falling behind on: managing his social-media profile. The Olympic runner knows how important it is for fans to see clips of him in action, particularly with the Paris Games about a year or so away. But securing rights to video footage and putting it up in an intelligent way across different digital venues can be difficult, he says. “That can be very stressful, and take away from the ability to perform.” NBCUniversal wants to offer athletes some assistance. The media company is launching a new production effort called Fortius that aims to help Olympic athletes burnish their brands in the months leading up to the next Games. The company has many reasons to do so. NBCU and its parent, Comcast have invested heavily in U.S. rights to the Olympics broadcasts, having agreed to pay $7.75 billion for broadcast rights to the events between 2021 and 2032. That programming, especially the hours that air in primetime, rely heavily on in-depth features on the athletes that often require NBC Sports crews to meet with them several times over the course of their training.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The upfront presentation that looks most like traditional TV came from a company that likes to tell investors, advertisers and consumers how it’s leapfrogging that entire business. Netflix on Wednesday showed dozens of scripted series and movies that could support advertising — if only Madison Avenue would take a chance and bet on its nascent efforts to sell commercials. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Chris Hemsworth and Julia Roberts were only some of the actors whose efforts could be tied to advertising. Counterparts like NBCUniversal and Fox Corp. were hard-pressed to do the same earlier this week. “We are just getting started,” said Peter Naylor, vice president of global advertising sales at Netflix.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CBS is out; Netflix is in. Nothing encapsulates the tumult in television these days more than the fact that CBS, one of the pillars of network television, has decided not to attend the industry’s traditional upfront week — when media giants make glitzy programming presentations to prospective advertisers — while Netflix will make its debut. A year ago, when Netflix announced it would launch a subscriber tier supported by advertising, it was a seismic event in the history of the industry’s leading streamer. But so far, there’s been no quaking on Madison Avenue.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor On his Fox News program, Tucker Carlson would often declare himself “the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and group think.” So now he wants to launch a show on Twitter? The social-media platform has given millions of people the ability to express themselves and communicate in ways they never could before, but it has also become a haven for bullying, tribalism and disinformation. Carlson may become part of the venue’s latest effort to keep traffic flowing even as many advertisers keep more than an arm’s length away. Figuring out how to handle Carlson could be one of the first challenges for Linda Yaccarino, who has been named Twitter’s new CEO. The former NBCUniversal ad-sales chief knows what it takes to line up blue-chip sponsorships at scale. But doing that on behalf of Carlson may be a mission impossible. HisFox News show suffered from a dearth of mainstream national advertisers, despite the show’s high ratings. After recent revelations about the host’s use of racist and misogynist language, disclosed in documents tied to Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation litigation against Fox News, Twitter’s new bosswould have to hunt far and wide for any traditional sponsors willing to associate Carlson with their brands.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CNN on Wednesday broadcast one of the most controversial news events of the year, a runaway town hall interview with former President Donald Trump, and advertisers like Subaru and Fidelity Investments went along for the ride. There are new questions about whether all of Madison Avenue will do so in the future. The nation’s big TV-news outlets are about to enter what should be a healthy cycle. The closer the U.S. gets to a presidential election, the more audiences tend to watch. CNN, for example, has indicated it expects to telecast more primetime town halls with candidates (last week’s lured nearly 3.31 million viewers), while Fox News Channel is expected to broadcast the Republican Party’s first primary debate in August.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor NBCUniversal shook up its ad-sales executive suite with just days to go before the company is slated to present its next slate of programing to advertisers. Linda Yaccarino, the company’s longtime chairman of advertising and partnerships, is leaving the company.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Linda Yaccarino, a hard-charging veteran of TV’s ad-sales wars, is in talks to become the next chief executive of Twitter, according to a person familiar with the matter. Yaccarino, who spent a good chunk of her career at WarnerMedia’s TV operations before joining NBCUniversal last decade, supervises the Comcast-owned company’s ad-sales efforts across the globe, with Peacock and NBC among the assets she helps fortify with revenue. In recent years, she has spearheaded initiatives to generate new cash flows through e-commerce, and worked to redefine the way the TV industry measures its audiences for advertisers in hopes of giving more credibility to the way Madison Avenue pays for people who watch their favorite programs via streaming video.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Gio Benitez is hoping to marry the two jobs he holds for ABC News. As the Disney unit’s transportation correspondent, he has been close to the recent movement into private space travel. As a newly named co-anchor for the weekend edition of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” he will handle stories that draw out viewers’ emotions and attention. He will continue to handle both roles. “I’m a space geek,” says Benitez, “and I get to still keep on doing it.” “I’ll tell you what he’s pitching,” says Simone Swink, the executive producer of ABC’s A.M. flagship. “He wants to be the first civilian and journalist on whatever the first mission to Mars is. That will be our ongoing conversation for the next five years.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Netflix is backing away from the live-in-New-York showcase it planned to hold for advertisers during the industry’s annual week of “upfront” presentations for advertisers, a move that threatens to put a damper on the company’s first big public attempt to woo advertisers to its service. The streaming giant is scrapping the event it planned to hold at its own Paris Theater in New York, slated for May 17, and informed advertisers of the switch Wednesday evening. The decision was previously reported by Adweek. Netflix’ decision takes place amid a massive writers strike that is likely to keep many of the actors, comedians and showrunners who might regularly attend away from the glitzy affairs held by most of the networks each year as part of the upfront, the annual attempt by U.S. media companies to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory attached to their next cycle of programming.