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Upfront week has finally wrapped, and it’s clear the Writers Guild of America strike had a significant impact on almost every presentation.
Though the star power was slightly dimmer this year, with both Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix only featuring executives during events as many celebrities refrained from crossing picket lines, the week still had several highlights, including a un-bear-ably foul-mouthed Ted making poignant barbs for NBCUniversal and 100 Samurai slashing through sword-fighting choreography at the North Javits Center for Disney. Plus, GOATs were going rogue for Fox.
See all the most memorable upfront week moments below. And if you missed any of our comprehensive upfront week coverage, you can find it here.
NBCUniversal
With NBCUniversal kicking off upfront week events at Radio City Music Hall, WGA protesters made a point of appearing outside the venue and chanting that there’d be “no pages without wages.” The strike was also felt inside Radio City, with NBCU heavily relying on its news team to present segments during the event. However, NBCU was still able to get things started with a pre-taped video featuring Seth MacFarlane’s potty-mouthed bear, Ted, singing about ads and joking: “Twitter may seem like the place to begin/but Twitter just let all the crazies back in.” With longtime ad sales president Linda Yaccarino exiting the company for Twitter days before the event, the joke took on a whole new meaning. (Though, Mark Marshall, interim chairman of advertising and partnerships, assured Adweek the Twitter quip had been in the presentation for months, and Yaccarino was well aware of it.) — Bill Bradley
Telemundo
Beau Ferrari, chairman of NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, previously told Adweek that the company’s upfront week theme was “Come With Us,” but we’re here to announce it really felt more like “Come Dance With Us.” From Nicky Jam performing his hits at The Glasshouse in New York to a dance team hyping up the crowd while the company presented sizzle reels, there’s no dancing around it: the 2023 Telemundo Celebration was the definition of a celebration. – B.B.
Fox
