Upfronts 2022: McG Goes 3-For-3 Pilot-To-Series In Return To Broadcast TV

Late-night hosts are brought in by networks to provide comic relief at their upfront presentations. But turns out Seth Meyers was only half joking when he told the thousands who had packed Radio City Music Hall for NBCUniversal’s presentation, “What a historic room to be able to tell people you got Covid in.”

ITV2 confirmed that Love Island will be back on our screens from June 6.The fan-favourite dating show will mark the start of a drama-filled steamy summer, as the nation tunes in at 9pm each night.There will be heartbreak, laughter, as the singles enter the villa to "find love". With just two weeks until the contestants of series eight enter a stunning new villa in Mallorca, many fans are wondering who they will be seeing on their screens every night as ITV have still not announced an official line up. Rumours have been rampant about who the new batch of sexy singles will be, including celebrity siblings and some completely new people.

Selome Hailu Upfronts returned to New York City in 2022, and even amid all the merger updates, positive COVID tests and screen-only presentations, there were still new shows to share.While The CW had a rough week in terms of cancellations, saying goodbye to several fan-loved projects, including “Dynasty” and “Legacies,” the network’s series orders based on already-popular properties proved to be the hottest of the week. NBC’s most exciting new title is an original comedy from a classic comedian — while CBS passed over all of its comedy pilots, ordering three promising dramas instead.

EXCLUSIVE: Alanna Ubach (Euphoria) has joined Seth MacFarlane’s comedy Ted, rounding out the main cast for the Peacock series based on his popular film franchise.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticWhatever you think of the continuing relevance of the upfronts and/or broadcast television, it’s always interesting to see how networks will frame their wares in order to sell themselves to the highest bidders. In between all the advertising jargon, corporate synergy and lofty promises of blockbuster programming to come, the upfronts presentations can be extremely informative as to what those in charge are betting on in the months to come.

CBS has unveiled its fall schedule and while there’s a few changes, it’s largely business as usual.

Khloe Kardashian wows in a bright blue dress while arriving for the 2022 ABC Disney Hulu Upfronts held at Basketball City on Tuesday (May 17) in New York City.

Selena Gomez, Kerry Washington and Hilary Duff hit the red carpet at the 2022 ABC Disney Upfronts!

The Bravo stars are attending the 2022 NBC Upfronts!

S. Epatha Merkerson‘s jaw dropped when she saw just what Taylor Kinney had his jacket lined with while attending the 2022 NBCUniversal Upfront held at Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Monday (May 16) in New York City.

The broadcast networks have largely made their new series pickups for next season. The picks include several IP-based shows, ABC’s Rookie spinoff, Quantum Leap for NBC, True Lies for CBS, Supernatural spinoff The Winchesters, Walker: Independence and Gotham Knights. There are also a couple of starring vehicles, ABC’s drama Alaska, which had been set up originally with Hilary Swank as the lead, Max Thieriot’s CBS drama Fire Country, The Rookie: Feds, starring Niecy Nash, and NBC comedy Lopez vs. Lopez with George Lopez. Pending is Fox’s straight-to-series order to John Eisendrath’s missing person procedural drama Alert, which is expected by Monday.  (Fox also has on tap for fall country music dynasty series Monarch left over from this season as well as straight-to-series anthology drama Accused, originally ordered last May.)

William Earl The network upfronts are once again front-and-center for the television industry as major players gather in New York May 16-19 for the springtime ritual of presenting programming plans for the upcoming TV season.The business has changed markedly in the three years since industry insiders last gathered in person at Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall and the like. The pandemic accelerated television’s embrace of on-demand streaming platforms and direct-to-consumer distribution models.But broadcast TV still has its sway — just look at the list of top performing series on the largest SVOD platforms.As content chiefs outline their plans for the 2022-2023 television season, here is a running list of new drama and comedy series orders handed out by ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW.

Fox, one of the two broadcast networks presenting on the first day of the upfronts Monday, was the last to make cancellation decisions this week, axing freshman comedy Pivoting and drama Our Kind of People Friday night. No announcement has been made yet on Fox’s two other bubble shows, comedies Call Me Kat and Welcome To Flatch. I hear both are being renewed, the latter after strong Season 2 pitch, including cast additions plan, as well as some creative dealmaking from Lionsgate TV.

EXCLUSIVE: Max Thieriot will be working very hard for the next year. He is the star and executive producer of CBS/CBS Studios’ drama Fire Country, which was picked up to series yesterday. Thieriot also is one of the stars of CBS Studios’ former CBS drama series SEAL Team which now streams on Paramount+.

EXCLUSIVE: Tia Napolitano (Cruel Summer) has joined CBS’ newly picked up drama series Fire Country as executive producer and showrunner. Her hire was already in the works when the network yesterday gave an official series order to the buzzy pilot, executive produced by and starring Max Thieriot.

When the dust settled after a frantic day today, the CW was left with 11 original scripted series — new and returning — on tap for next season. That is down from from 19 (including Stargirl whose future is unclear) picked up for the 2021-22 season last year.

"Top Gun: Maverick" director Joseph Kosinski shared that bringing back the female characters played by Meg Ryan and Kelly McGillis was never considered for the 2022 sequel.  During an interview with Insider, Kosinski said, "Those weren't stories that we were throwing around." Ryan, 60, played the character of Goose’s wife Carole Bradshaw in the 1986 movie, and McGillis, 64, played Top Gun instructor Charlotte "Charlie" Blackwood.  Meg Ryan and Kelly McGillis were never asked to return in the 2022 sequel "Top Gun: Maverick." (Getty Images) According to Kosinski, the filmmakers wanted to take "Top Gun: Maverick" in a different direction. "I didn't want every storyline to always be looking backwards," Kosinski shared.

As we are waiting for the onslaught of new series orders the next couple of days, here is some last-minute gossip on what is hot at the broadcast networks in an abbreviated edition of Deadline’s Pilot Buzz.

DJ Khaled knows how to turn up the heat in the middle of a game.