RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE 2022 UPFRONTS

 CBS revealed their 22-23 schedule this morning. I would often wait for the CW announcement to pontificate but, really, why bother. I think David Zaslav and the WBD possé has declared themselves the fifth "network" so here are some thoughts and impressions.

I'M SO HAPPY I'M NO LONGER IN THE BUSINESS. That's it. Next.

WE HAVE TO BE NEAR THE END OF THE TRADITIONAL NETWORK UPFRONTS AND THE BEGINNING OF THE DISNEY+, PARAMOUNT+, PEACOCK, WARNER DISCOVERY, FOX/TUBI. The broadcast networks are part of a studio/multi-platform delivery eco-system. More ad money will be moving into that system and out of traditional broadcast. within a year or so WARNER DISCOVERY will be the model for these presentations.

AVOD will be the growth area and, as I predicted, NETFLIX will get into the advertising game. The beauty of streaming and advertising is, for now, you can't fast forward through the ads....for now.

SOMEONE IS GOING TO INVENT THE NEXT ITERATION OF "TV GUIDE" AND MAKE A FORTUNE. Right now figuring out what to watch and where to find it is a mess and most streamers don't make it easy for their own users. There's money there.

FBC NEEDS TO GO COLD TURKEY FROM THEIR FORMER STUDIO PARTNER. They dodged a bullet this year and, no matter what Charlie said, they held off announcing a schedule because two of their successful scripted shows were being held hostage. Those 20th Television people were assholes when we were all under one roof, I can only imagine the negotiations now that they are separate entities. Animation will be the next battleground.

YOU GOTTA LOVE CBS. Rudyard Kipling said it best:

If you can keep your head when all about you

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you

They continue to use the playbook with the frayed yellow edges with a binder that is falling apart.....but it works. If the other networks acted this way there would have been far less erosion over the past decade.

I'm not going to bother evaluating every network's schedule but some observations:

Back in the day you were always looking for a "big move" by one of the networks. I was part of several of them. It was a way of announcing that these schedules matter and where shows go impacted the other networks. These moves were far less risky than portrayed by the press but they got the networks "ink". That has been replaced by "stability"...fewer new shows and fewer time period changes. There is little showmanship here and that has been the case for a while.

The "colonized nights" are the way to go because.....

......network TV is becoming like radio. You can turn it on at 8PM and stay for three hours and you get the same stuff. If there was one questionable (to me) scheduling move it was ABC separating it's colonized "The Rookie" show from the mothership but.....

.....don't expect networks to change their schedules based on the competitors schedules. Another lost art. Back in the day I would study the other skeds and if my spidey senses tingle I would suggest a tweak to my bosses who generally trusted me.

Heroes, heroes, heroes and healers. Cops, Firefighters, EMT, FBI, Doctors, Prosecutors. You know what won't work? ALASKA.

Sci-fi pretty much gone from the network schedules. This increases the chances of success. You have LA BREA returning from last year but that was starting to fade which is common for the genre. QUANTUM LEAP is IP and high concept but much closer to TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL and HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN....the feel good anthology.

ANOTHER WAVE OF THE VIRUS AND ALL THIS WILL TURN TO SHIT REAL FAST.

Good luck to everyone involved and it's gonna be real interesting to see where the money goes, what measures are being used and how guarantees are handled.