Like the Bat Signal to a Gotham criminal, season finales on broadcast networks warn those involved in the industry of the impending doom (or elation) of upfronts. Every May, the four major and one minor — The CW, not NBC — networks hold slightly over-the-top press conferences where they announce their prime-time schedules for the fall season. Below I have listed the upfronts schedule:
Monday: NBC and Fox
Tuesday: ABC
Wednesday: CBS
Thursday: The CW
For shows with low or dwindling ratings, the emotions surrounding upfronts are similar to those for a bubble team on Selection Sunday: relief for those shows that were renewed and disappointment for those cancelled at the last moment. But for those of us that enjoy upfronts week, the most important part is the reveal of which pilots are picked up for the fall. The debate over which ones were chosen and which weren’t is similar to drafting arguments in professional sports. There’s always second guessing, and we won’t know which will succeed or fail until months later.
As mentioned in the previous post, Off The Mark Thoughts and The Main Damie will spilt coverage of this important time of the year. Starting tomorrow, Off The Mark Thoughts will have my reaction to each network’s fall schedule along with my prediction of which one pilot will mostly likely succeed and which will most likely fail. Then next Monday on The Main Damie, I will have my recap of my weeklong coverage, and which network I think “won” during upfronts. And the third part of the series will occur in the fall with my review of every pilot.
I hope you will join us!
The Main Damie 