Our spring sale is now live — get full access for just $2/week, 50% OFF for 12 months. Lock in your rate before the offer ends. Howdy, folks! In this newsletter: Upfronts, Byron Allen's plans for Colbert's slot on CBS, Cannes, "Obsession" filmmaker Curry Barker, and more. I'll be filling in for Roger Cheng for the next week while he gets some well-deserved vacation, and on this fine Friday, we're talking about the future of television. Namely, the future of TV that was outlined in the upfronts presentations from networks and streamers this week, which our wonderful TV team covered exhaustively. The name of the game is safety. In this fractured and contracted environment, our Kayla Cobb and Lucas Manfredi reported that the presentations leaned on the tried and true to woo advertisers. That meant a lot of sports and some splashy stars, but no risky bets. Did you know that "Baywatch" is coming back on Fox? What about "Rockford Files" on NBC? What is new is microdramas and creators. We've known this, but Peacock and TelevisaUnivision are getting into the microdramas game, an industry expected to be worth $11 billion this year. Netflix, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery and Tubi, meanwhile, are leaning into creators for new programming that they hope hits with the younger demos. Times are changing. Can TV catch up? Adam Chitwood | ||||||||||||
