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Far be it from Les Moonves to miss a chance to preen onstage. So CBS is ignoring the writers strike-related delay of pilot season and announced today that it’s going ahead with its May 14th upfront presentation of its Fall 2008-2009 schedule to advertisers, like always. ABC and the CW today also joined Fox in sticking with the traditional upfront presentations, leaving NBC as odd man out. CBS takes over NYC’s Carnegie Hall on May 14th. ABC said it will hold its upfront presentation May 13th at Lincoln Center. Fox announced its presentation May 15th at the New York City Center. And the CW shows on May 15 at Madison Square Garden.
NBC’s decision follows Jeff Zucker’s recent keynote speech at NATPE claiming the writers strike’s most lasting legacy will likely be the way it finally pushed the broadcast networks to reinvent their businesses by destroying pilot season (with NBC Entertainment placing most of its orders direct to series) and eliminating a formal upfront presentation (with NBCU executives instead visiting all major advertising agencies personally). The NBC Universal chief derided the traditional big show every May as “a vestige of the last decade”. Of course, Zucker also hedged that he still might do the presentation which helps networks sell $9 billion in ad time annually.
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Wow, When did Les Moonves become Barack Obama? Dude needs to lay off the tan.
I don’t know what Jeff Zucker is smoking but it is actually more cost effective to just rent out a hall in New York City and do one presentation rather than visit all advertising agencies and do a presentation for each of them. If Radio City is too expensive, just rent out a hall at Madison Square Garden.
Finally, it helps to have a plan for what you want to program. That is why ABC, CBS, and FOX have success, and why NBC is holding the crumbs.
You’re killing me Steve……
I can’t wait to hear JZ try to explain to NBC shareholders how destroying a major revenue stream is a great cost cutting move.
What makes Zucker think he’ll still have his job three months from now? He can be fired as fast as he got rid of Kevin Reilly who just happens to be the guy that put Office and Heroes on the schedule to start with. Zucker will soon be shown the door there. All his backstabbing will catch up with him very soon.
Anonymous -
“What makes Zucker think he’ll still have his job three months from now?”
Did you just wake from a long slumber?! Since his first day 7 years ago, Zucker has failed at every single step. Not only has he kept his job, he’s been promoted!!
The only question is whether he’ll outlast the cockroaches in a nuclear war.
If only Les worked as hard making CBS great as he does on his tan. It is pretty pathetic seiing his leather skin.
There is a reason most of the advertisers go to upfronts. Media buyers don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to hold time on big popular shows, but that is where Zucker is brilliant. Since he doesn’t have big popular shows, he doesn’t need to worry about Proctor and Gamble because they don’t care about doing upfront buys of his network’s time. Why should NBC spend money doing glitzy presentations of Coupling and Bionic Woman for advertisers who are smart enough not to commit to orders? Zucker is a genius.
Did the Oompa Loompa’s get a new boss?
Moonves looks like an old orange.
Can’t believe the Chenbot let him out of the house like that.
Les Moonves is dreamy.
Well, at least Les matches Chenbot’s complexion.
Which is WAYYYY better than that schmaltz J. Zucker…Paul, you are dead on, why put up an upfront when GE/NBCU has absolutely no decent original scripted programming to promote. The way things are going it will be product placement/integration crazy…Crazy like a Silverman.
All I can see are his teeth. Maybe he’s planning on joining the cast of CANE. Oh, wait, he can’t. That show flopped just like every other new show on CBS this year.
Actually Jeff Zucker owes his continued success to two NBC franchises; Today and Friends. Zucker had his beginning as chief of the Today Show, and continued to rise to the position of NBC President of Entertainment. For the most part Zucker entered the job when NBC was riding high in the ratings due to shows like “West Wing,” “Friends,” and “ER.” Even “Fraiser” got good ratings on Tuesdays. Now the only show that remains is ER, but NBC should just let that show go as well as Las Vegas if they are looking to trim costs.
Zucker is Zucker. But he does have a point. The failure rate for pilots is less than the Mendoza line. Cost is high too. Subsidies from hit shows aren’t covering it as the audience is less and less — erosion from from fragmenting audience but let’s be honest, niche programming too.
Advertisers want to see if a show is going to be “Chuck” or “Big Shots.” But upfronts are not the major cost impediment — it’s burning money on shows that never get made, or are doomed out of the gate.
What I’d like to see (as a viewer) is “fair play.” Let creators make a show concept on the cheap, and fair play compensation for writers, producers, and actors out of revenue. Honest accounting to drive down investment costs to make shows so we viewers don’t get play it safe, follow the trend formulas. Like Rob Long says, more Silicon Valley and less old Hollywood — ripoffs and shady accounting leading to huge upfront costs.
Zucker may be Zucker. But he might be on to something.
Someone please help me understand why he keeps getting promoted. He’s had nothing but high profile failures. Bionic Woman is a mess. Coupling, a great show in the UK was horrible here. My Name is Earl actually became a worse show.
So many posts that have nothing to do with the story at all. I mean commenting on Zucker’s picture or how he looks? Come on folks, what are you 12 years old?
Personally I think it’s refreshing to see someone in television taking a look at how they do business and promote or select new shows. Some of you have already dubbed his plan as a failure and I can’t help but wonder what special professional credentials you all hold to pass such a judgement.
I doubt that Zucker can be personally blamed for any failures of shows on the network any more than he can be congratulated for successful series. Zucker is not a one man show, there are many others responsible for failures and successes. It’s amazing how folks can attribute everything that happens on a network to a single person. I’m sure that the powers that be, see Zucker in a completely different light since he is still around.
He’s got the teeth of a beaver. Where’s the river?
Mark my words. There’s absolutely no way Jeff Zucker and NBC won’t be at the upfronts. First of all, do you really think Ben Silverman is going to sit out a chance to promote all the shows he bought from his former company Reveille? Secondly, Zucker made those comments before the WGA strike ended. If everyone else is doing it, so is he. I think if there’s anything the strike has shown us is that these guys stick together. Not because they like each other, but because they want to make sure one of them doesn’t stab the other in the back when he’s not looking.
Zucker is the focus of evil at NBC he is a master at blaming others for his own fuckups. Zucker fired Kevin Reilly because if he didn’t fire him then Jeff would’ve been blamed for the network’s failure to rise in the ratings, even though Reilly is the one who gave NBC their only hit shows currently on the air. Zucker decided to hire Silverman purely to focus the spotlight on “an exciting new hire” and away from himself because it would’ve been a spotlight of blame.
Folks, you’re missing the point. NBC is not indicating that they won’t participate in upfront negotiations. Far from it. What they want to eliminate is the extremely costly ($5 to $7 million, depending on where it’s held) single day presentation in May. The meeting no longer serves a purpose, other than to entertain junior buyers, who are feted by media salespeople all year round. Senior buyers don’t go anymore – they watch pilots on DVD and get schedules from the newspaper and the web. Visiting agencies one by one will afford them face time with the senior agency decision makers, at a cost well below the single day schmoozefest.
I also fail to see what the other networks will have to present at their meetings, other than a reaffirmation of a year old strategy. There will be nothing to see and nothing to talk about.
Speaking as a buyer and someone who has gone to the upfronts for years, there are senior personnel aplenty at the presentations. They may not stick around for the shrimpfests afterwards, but they’re front and center at the actual presentations.
Zucker is the Peter Principle at work. He took NBC from #1 to #4 and emerged without a scratch on him. B-schools everywhere will teach courses in how to destroy a thriving business by using him as an example. He wrung a billion dollars of value out of the Peacock in one fell swoop.
In all of his posturing, the one thing he seems to forget is that, while we agency people and the network execs could probably do without the big dog and pony shows every year, the people who really pay the bills (read, the advertisers themselves) look forward to this week and like to have an idea of where their millions of dollars are going. Everybody likes to be made to feel special just before they get the bill, if you get my drift.