• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Today

Every year, many question whether the mid-May upfront presentations are still necessary or relevant.

To be sure, they are a combination of noise, blarney and hot air. As a journalist, I’m not a customer for these sales pitches, so I have no idea if these presentations, in and of themselves, drive anyone’s decision-making processes.

I suppose that is one reason I like them. I have nothing at stake, no decisions to make. I get invited, go to my assigned seat (or battle for an unassigned seat, depending on the company), and take in the atmosphere.

This year, the effort to get into the ones I wanted was easier than some other years when it was so frustrating that I actually wrote about these struggles.

Thus, I am all set to attend five of them in three days next month: on Monday (May 12), NBCU in the morning, Fox in the afternoon; on Tuesday (May 13), Disney in the afternoon; and Wednesday (May 14), Warner Bros. Discovery in the morning and Netflix in the afternoon.

The latter is a first for me. It will be my first-ever Netflix upfront. This one is to be held at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in lower Manhattan located a few steps away from where the old World Trade Center once stood. The PPAC opened in 2023.

I have never been to this venue, but I’m looking forward to it. Why do I care so much about venues? Because this is New York, and many of the venues are world class. They are a source of endless fascination.

However, over the years, some of them outlived their sell-by dates and I have written about these shortcomings many times. Once a critic, always a critic.

One place I never liked -- Carnegie Hall, site of so many CBS Upfronts in decades past. Despite its august history, the place was like something out of an Edith Wharton novel, and not in a good way. It dates to 1891.

The days of CBS Upfronts are long gone, of course. Only Fox has an Upfront that is still “legacy-network focused,” you might say, although Tubi, Fox News and Fox Sports are also prominently featured. 

This year’s Fox Upfront is also at an old place -- the Manhattan Center at 34th Street and Eighth Avenue, once known as the Hammerstein Ballroom built in 1906.

ABC and NBC had their own Upfronts too so long ago. Today, they are cogs in much larger machines. 

At the NBCU upfronts in recent years, NBC has been positioned on the same level as Bravo. At the Disney upfronts, ABC barely gets a mention.

Some customs and traditions remain, however. NBC, and now NBCUniversal, has always batted lead-off on Upfront Week for as long as I can remember.

This year, NBCU kicks it all off with its Upfront at Radio City Music Hall, one of the best venues for this kind of thing. 

For many years, ABC had its upfronts at Avery Fisher Hall (now David Geffen Hall) at Lincoln Center. 

More recently, Disney has held theirs in the north end of the sprawling Javits Center convention and exhibition facility. The Disney Upfront will return there this year.

Warner Bros. Discovery will likely stage their upfront at the theater at Madison Square Garden (not to be confused with the giant arena where the Knicks and Rangers play). 

They have been there every year for ages and ages, going back to when the company was just the Turner networks.

Missing from the Upfront lineup is Paramount Global, parent company of CBS and other brands such as Showtime. 

CBS’s traditional “time slot” during Upfront Week was always Wednesday afternoon. With Paramount AWOL, Netflix has assumed the slot for now (or possibly forever).

For me, the Upfronts represent an annual opportunity to check in on the TV business and learn how the industry and these companies are positioning themselves once again for the annual ad sales season.

As a writer, I especially love hearing the newest jargon that, unbeknownst to me, is already sweeping the industry. There are examples of this every year. I eventually get to use them in these TV Blogs too.

In many years past, the last Upfront of my own personal schedule was The CW’s presentation traditionally on Thursday. I hope to see the folks at The CW again this year.