Fox' presentation focused heavily on sports, featuring talent from MLB, college football, NFL and WWEGETTY IMAGES
During Fox' upfront presentation yesterday, Madison Avenue got a glimpse at how important sports programming will be to the net's primetime schedule this upcoming TV season. In the fall, Fox in primetime will have NFL games on Thursdays, WWE on Fridays and college football on Saturdays. “This three-night block of sports is part of our strategy,” said Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier. The strategy involves using sports programming not only to generate ratings and ad sales, but to launch new series. Fox Sports CEO & Exec Producer Eric Shanks was the second exec to come on stage behind Collier. The presentation seemingly spent as much time on sports as non-sports programming, with talent from MLB, college football, NFL and the WWE all having big roles. Fox also trotted out Joe Buck and Alex Rodriguez to hype its MLB coverage. The net also brought out some talent from its revamped college football studio show. The "Fox NFL Sunday" crew talked up February's Super Bowl LIV in South Florida, as well as "Thursday Night Football." Fox then brought out WWE stars John Cena and Ronda Rousey, as well as Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon and Exec VP/Talent, Live Events & Creative Paul “Triple H” Levesque (John Ourand, SBJ Media).
ALL ABOUT TIMING: THE BIG LEAD's Ryan Glasspiegel wrote another sign Fox is "very serious about competing for numbers" in the college football space was that they announced their "best Saturday games will air at noon eastern." Airing their best games at noon "gives Fox less competition against other premier games," and "puts even more heat in the pregame battle" (THEBIGLEAD.com, 5/13).
BRADSHAW'S BLUNDER: DEADLINE's Nellie Andreeva noted Fox' Terry Bradshaw made a "racially insensitive comment" during the upfront presentation. In a reference to his stint on "The Masked Singer," Bradshaw referred to actor Ken Jeong, who is an American-born of Korean descent, as "the little short guy from Japan." In an official statement, Bradshaw wrote: "I would like to also apologize to the Asian-American community for my insensitivity" (DEADLINE.com, 5/13).
GOLD STANDARD: In N.Y., John Koblin writes for a second straight year, NBC "went hard on the Olympics, this time trotting out 13 female medal winners," including former U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn and former U.S. figure skater Tara Lipinski. That was "good enough for a standing ovation" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/14).
