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Greetings from 30,000 feet! I’m flying home from a few days in New York of TV upfront presentations, steak dinners, and (I really hope) NOT catching Covid. So What I’m Hearing is a little shorter today…
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More Netflix layoffs coming: At the press day for the Netflix film A Perfect Pairing, which was taking place on Tuesday at the company’s Hollywood headquarters, people noticed that a publicist assigned to the Adam Demos-Victoria Justice rom-com was absent. Then the news broke: She’d just been laid off, one of about 150 Netflix staffers to get the boot that morning, thanks to slowing growth and the stock crash. One participant described the mood at Netflix HQ that day as beyond bleak, with the celebrated lobby quiet and morose. (Remember when, not three years ago, the New York Times called it the “Town Hall of Hollywood”?) Employees were warned about another possible workforce shrinkage later this year, though teams impacted during this round likely won’t feel the ax next time.
Amazon Prime time live: I’m told that Amazon has picked up the one-year option on the Academy of Country Music Awards, which is interesting for a couple reasons. First, it’s a small vote of confidence in awards shows, which are scrambling for a lifeline as audiences shrink on linear TV (though Amazon never released viewership for its March experiment with a commercial-free broadcast co-hosted by Dolly Parton). Second, it’s further evidence that Amazon wants to go deep into live programming, with all the major streamers experimenting with either live sports, events or both.
Defamation by email?: Donald Trump’s awful media lawyer Charles Harder is now going after small-time writer Alexander Hakimi, purveyor of the @backstagebombshell Instagram account. Why? Harder reps businesswoman Lou Taylor, the former business manager for Britney Spears, who was the subject of unflattering attention for, among other things, her coziness with Britney’s father, JamieSpears. Hakimi sent an email to a few media people noting that Mary J. Blige, another Taylor client, had thanked Spears at the Billboard Music Awards, despite TriStar, Taylor’s company, having been “accused of dissipating Britney Spears’ assets” and “facilitating Jamie Spears spying on his daughter.” Taylor apparently didn’t like that, so Harder had an associate fire off a silly harassment letter. Read the nonsense here if you’re interested.
Now on to the TV upfronts. I may have a little more on Sunday, but here’s my general takeaway….
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| TV in 2022: Why Weren’t The Upfronts an Email? |
| It’s all about “the portfolio” now, or “our unified approach,” or “company-wide capabilities.” Everyone is all-in on the kitchen-sink approach, which quickly becomes about the brands and platforms, not the actual content. |
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Somewhere in the middle of the Warner Bros. Discovery upfront presentation yesterday—I think it was as I watched Jennifer Hudson awkwardly interview Lil Jon and a Property Brother—a voice materialized in my head. It was Jimmy Kimmel’s voice, actually, from his monologue during the previous day amid the Disney presentation to advertisers, which Kimmel delivered from a separate location after testing positive for Covid. “There is no good reason for you to be in that room,” Kimmel told the crowd.
No kidding. I am not a regular TV upfront attendee. This time of year, I would usually opt for the Cannes Film Festival, another absurdist media circus, albeit one with better views and bigger stars. But with the freshly-merged WBD presenting for the first time, Paramount Global doing its inaugural combined upfront, and a new advertising push from streamers like Disney+ and Netflix—two companies that, until recently, seemed to consider the $70 billion television advertising business beneath them—it seemed like a good time to check out Hollywood’s first in-person pitch to ad buyers in three years.
Never mind that Covid is surging, or that even many of the big agents and studio presidents (stalwarts of past events) decided not to attend, or that much of the fanfare and showmanship of upfronts past had disappeared, like Les Moonves and Steve McPherson, long before the pandemic. This is still a best-foot-forward situation...
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