Related: NBC Preaches Stability With New Schedule
NBCU established what it planned to do at its upfront presentation: tie in two broadcast networks, a large array of diverse cable channels and a slew of digital properties into one neat bundle. It represented NBCUs first upfront presentation as a group, with new shows divided thematically-Rule Breakers for spiky dramas and Fierce for strong female-driven vehicles, among other headers-instead of by network.
That meant a few fewer network execs on the stage, and more talent, giving the show something of a primetime awards telecast feel. The roster of A-list stars taking the stage, often in pairs, included Mariah Carey, Mr. Robot duo Rami Malek and Christian Slater, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Lopez and Elizabeth Hurley.
I promise it will only be two hours, said Steve Burke, NBCU CEO. So committed was the company to reinventing the usual approach that NBC Entertainment chief Bob Greenblatt didnt appear until the one-hour mark and NBCU Cable head Bonnie Hammer just moments before the final fade to black.
Complete Coverage: Upfronts 2016
The Radio City Music Hall festivities began with Jimmy Fallon dressed in Hamilton garb, rapping about the new NBC lineup. Ten new shows appear this fall, he sang. The word Chicago appears in them all. He also got off a crack about the purpose of the unified show (which, as Burke said, replaced the previous tally of eight separate events during the spring) being to save the company money.
Notably absent from the event was the day-by-day NBC schedule, a staple of upfronts for decades. Sales chief Linda Yaccarino referred attendees to a business-card-sized schedule on every seat, but even that card didnt offer timeslots or days, just a list of new dramas, comedies, alternative shows and live events.
Burke noted the five-year anniversary of regulatory approval of Comcasts acquisition of NBCU came in January. During those five years since, he said the company has invested more than $40 billion in content, more than the value of the initial deal itself.
Related: Upfront Notebook: NBCU Pours It On for Two Hours
Knowing his audience, he also offered a stat about what he called big nights, which NBCU defines as primetime slots that delivered more than a 10.0 household rating and a 5.0 in the 18-to-49-year-old demo. Of the 61 such nights thus far in 2016, NBCU has had 43 of them.
Think about what that means when youre an advertiser trying to change peoples perceptions of a brand or a new movie or an automobile, Burke said.
New shows getting stage time included NBCs time-traveling Timeless and tear-jerker This is Us, and life-in-heaven comedy The Good Place; USAs Falling Water; E!s Mariahs World; and Telemundos El Chema, a spinoff of El Se or de los Cielos.
The shindig also played up key sports properties, including the Summer Olympics, Sunday Night Football, and a share of the Thursday Night Football package. Greenblatt spent just a few minutes on stage, talking up live television, such as the Hairspray production on tap for winter, and special events.
Related: USA Network Reveals Mr. Robot,' New Dramas Trailers
Yaccarino took a swipe or two at Nielsen while talking up NBCUs audience transmedia measurement initiatives. She said TV audiences watch seven times more TV than they do using Facebook, and 15 times more than watching YouTube-something that current measurement tools dont always reflect. I dont run a ratings company or a research company, she said. But Im happy to do their jobs for them.
When Amazon wanted to launch its voice-activated Alexa platform, it turned to television, she noted, introducing a brief bit featuring the glowing Alexa speaker seen in spots starring the likes of Alec Baldwin. No one has our reach. No one has our content. And no one has our track record, she intoned, in something of a broadcast manifesto for the week. This business isnt about getting impressions. Its about making impressions. I dont care what those Silicon Valley guys say. There is no algorithm for heart-pumping, blood-racing, breath-holding premium content. Television: its not about the ones and the zeroes. Its about the oohs and the ahs.
Seth Meyers came on near the close, remarking on NBCU taking over Radio City again after NBC held its upfront present a few years back at the unsightly Jacob Javits center on the way, way west side of Manhattan. Usually people dont rebound from the Javits trajectory, said the late night funnyman. Usually its Radio City...the Javits...the mens room at Penn Station.
Related: For Some, Fewer Spots May Mean More
Meyers also poked fun at the broad sweep of channels on display for the day, working in a few bogus networks, such as The Surgery Channel, to see if attendees could spot the fake.
Finally, Hammer, NBCU cable chairman, stepped to the stage, boasting of the joint show being the most powerful way to demonstrate the incredible reach and expansive scale of a combined NBCU.
And with that, just under two hours after it began, the show ended, the slogan Reach Redefined taking over the big screen and confetti cannons firing.
Media buyers questioned after the event said the new NBCU approach went over well, that the two hours went quickly, and the thematic groupings were a smart idea. One did mention that it was more difficult to remember which shows went with which networks.
Dade Hayes contributed to this report.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
Related: NBC Preaches Stability With New Schedule
