Warner Bros. Discovery kicked off its annual upfront event at the Madison Square Garden Theater by paying tribute to the late Ted Turner, who had just died the previous week. Turner, of course, was part of why WBD was even holding an upfront in the first place: Not only was the media giant a cable pioneer who brought us CNN, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network and more, but his Turner Broadcasting was the cornerstone of Warner Bros.’ ad-supported media portfolio — something that expanded greatly with the Discovery Communications merger.
But as Anderson Cooper paid tribute to Turner, the audience of ad buyers, media analysts and reporters couldn’t help but think about the elephant in the room — or, as WBD’s presidents of U.S. advertising Ryan Gould and Bobby Voltaggio joked, the “Ellison in the room”: This wasn’t just a eulogy for Ted Turner. It could very well also be WBD’s swan song, as the company will likely be consumed by Paramount Skydance before the next upfronts season.
The uncertainty of the TV business was on everyone’s minds, of course, starting with what will happen with the Warner Bros. Discovery/Paramount merger. But that’s still to come. Right now, the congloms are back to focusing on their bread and butter: TV programming.
In recent years, it started to feel like the upfronts were less about TV and more about conglomerates pitching their entire 360 approach. Divisions that never made it on the network stage, like sports, theatrical movies and other brand synergies, suddenly got more time than what was airing on a Wednesday at 8 p.m. This year, the movies still popped up here and there — especially at WBD, which took a warranted bow for their smash 2025 — and sports were well-represented. But for the most part, the show was once again the thing.
“I felt like people are feeling a little bullish again on TV, and the different ways that people are consuming shows,” said Warner Bros. TV Group chairman/CEO Channing Dungey. “It felt like good, old fashioned broadcast was back front and center. I was very happy to see that.”
At NBC, that renewed focus on programming came as the network conducted a mini-pilot season for the first time in several years. “There was a very concerted effort on our part to invest and focus on scripted, and that’s why we did the pilot season,” said NBC/Peacock scripted content head Lisa Katz. “We were really happy with the outcome.”
Dungey said she was excited to see NBC shoot those eight pilots. “That is always encouraging, because they’re making and I was reading what Lisa Katz was saying about being committed to doing more pilots again next season, which I think is great. We made a pilot this year for CBS that unfortunately didn’t go, but it does feel like people are still investing and making things, which is exciting. Even in streaming, we’re making pilots, including two right now for HBO Max.”
Key TV stars made appearances at all the upfront presentations, a nice throwback to the golden age of the network upfronts. But make no mistake, we live in different times: Not a single scheduling move or timeslot was mentioned at any of the upfronts throughout the week. And yet, there were several strategic surprises in how the networks, in particular, plan to roll out their new and returning series.
Here are more key takeaways from the 2026 upfronts:
Midseason Is The New Fall: Not too long ago, it would be unthinkable for a network like ABC to hold its No. 1 show (“High Potential”) off the fall skeds, CBS to push two of its biggest shows (“Matlock” and “Ghosts”) to at least January or NBC to wait until midseason to launch a highly anticipated title like its “The Rockford Files” reboot.
But these are different times. For one thing, NFL and college football, plus other live sports, dominates so much of primetime that it seems competitively like the best option is to wait until January for the real TV season to begin. In September, just five hours of ABC’s and seven hours of NBC’s 22-hour-a-week lineups are scripted originals. Only two out of Fox’s seven nights are scripted. And across all networks, just six new shows bow in the fall — with most waiting for post-football homes.
“Not only is the fall less vibrant, but it also is starting later,” Dungey noted. “I think it’s because everyone just now wants to get out of the way of sports. That’s what it feels like to me.”
“High Potential” was moved to January in order to give the show an uninterrupted run, said Ari Goldman, ABC’s senior vice president, content strategy and scheduling. ““We’re thinking about the behavior of our linear audience, but also the streaming viewers, who really have shown the importance of week-over-week steadiness in planning and rolling out these shows,” he said.
CBS had previously said the strength of its schedule allowed it to hold “Matlock” and “Ghosts” to midseason, and indeed the Eye network does have limited shelf space given all of its franchises (“NCIS,” “FBI,” “Country”).
As for “Rockford Files,” NBC also had no place to put it, given its multiple nights of sports. The network decided newbie “Line of Fire” made more sense coming out of “The Voice” on Mondays at 10 p.m., while “Traitors” had to go in the fall so it didn’t butt up against the celebrity edition on Peacock — and those were its only two free hours. (NBC execs believe “Rockford” is more of an 8 p.m. blue sky show — and could very well take the Thursday 8 p.m. slot once civilian “The Traitors” completes its run).
It’s also perhaps an acknowledgement that audiences have become used to longer waits for their favorite shows, vs. the days when a summer break was the longest a hit went without an episode.
Those longer hiatuses also come as some network series see reduced episodic counts (although still more than streaming shows). There are some exceptions (the Dick Wolf shows tend to be closer to 21 episodes), but for dramas, “I feel like the new normal has become somewhere between 15 and 18 episodes,” Dungey said.
Comedy Conundrum: Only three new laffers made it on to the network skeds next season: “Eternally Yours” at CBS and “Sunset P.I.” and “Newlyweds” at NBC. Fox, which is down to just one live action comedy, told reporters it was reassessing its financial model for comedy, while ABC is thrilled with the success of the “Scrubs” revival — but also doesn’t have much space for half hours.
“I think you have to be patient with them,” Katz said. “We’ve always known that comedies usually take time, but when you have the talent behind them, both in front and behind the camera, and you can get something like a ‘St. Denis or a ‘Happy’s Place’ or a ‘Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins,’ there’s nothing better.”
Comedy isn’t just for broadcast, of course, as the genre blossoms on streaming — Season 2 of “Running Point” has been a success for Netflix, for example, and HBO Max’s “The Rooster” just posted a strong ratings story. Apple TV has turned “Shrinking” into a hit, and is about to bring back “Ted Lasso.” HBO Max, meanwhile, is generating a ton of interest in “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe,” a new sci-fi-heavy chapter in “The Big Bang Theory” universe.
Blue Skies Are Here: While streaming audiences still seem to have an appetite for dark and moody, the recent successes of shows like “High Potential” prove a desire for more blue sky fare at the broadcasters — and they’re taking that to heart. ABC is eager to grow “R.J. Decker,” and has the upcoming “The Rookie: North,” Fox is about to unleash “Baywatch,” CBS has “Elsbeth” and NBC is high on “The Rockford Files.”
“I think the last few years, people have been doing a bit more lighter, brighter shows,” Katz said. “When you look at ‘Rockford,’ one of the things we liked about it was he’s a little bit of an underdog and very fallible and human. I think people want television that’s relatable and optimistic, things the world feels like it’s lacking.”
Executive Hellos and (Potential) Goodbyes: This upfront served as the debut for several entertainment executives in new leadership roles. At the highest possible level was Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, who took the stage at Disney’s presentation following a welcome from “Devil Wears Prada 2” star Anne Hathaway. It was a big moment, as the CEO isn’t often the one tasked with upfronts duty.
And though D’Amaro seemed to have some jitters (he’s much more used to the D23 crowd full of fanatic parks fans) his appearance surely went a long way in impressing potential ad buyers about his commitment to the TV division.
Elsewhere, Peter Friedlander made his first-ever upfronts appearance speaking as the new head of scripted TV for Amazon MGM Studios/Prime Video and showing off several splashy projects to come, like the “Fourth Wing” TV series.
Noticeably missing from the week was Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who has previously been front and center at the WBD presentation but this year didn’t go before an audience. Zaslav’s on-stage absence comes as he’s getting ready to part ways with the company, should the pending acquisition by Paramount Skydance go through.
Hollywood’s “Will We, Won’t We?” Relationship with AI: AI has been the focal point of many a conversation in Hollywood recently, but the upfronts presented a noticeably mixed message on the subject. Some media companies barely mentioned it, like NBCU’s Mark Marshall, who made only a passing mention of AI during his time onstage. Or Disney’s Rita Ferro, who talked about the use of “automated systems” but did not give a full-throated endorsement of the emerging technology.
Meanwhile, Fox devoted more than five full minutes to AI alone during its hour-long presentation to advertisers, making it a central focus. Netflix seemed to walk the finest line, illustrating how it is making AI a part of the advertising business but keeping the remarks relatively short.
AI is not going anywhere anytime soon, and Hollywood is still figuring out where and how to integrate it into the filmmaking process. Based on what we saw at the upfronts, your guess on when that will be sorted out is as good as ours.
The Tech and TV Divide: While yes, as we mentioned earlier, programs are still part of the upfront pitch, but they are increasingly being served with a stream of tech-speak. Fox even had its chief technology officer address the assembled at its upfront presentation.
It wasn’t always this way. In a fondly remembered time, advertisers were more interested in the shows, eager to hitch their ads to big-audience programs like “E.R.” or “Survivor.” Now, viewers for dramas, comedies and reality shows are harder to come by, because people now have the leeway to watch their favorites at any moment of their own choosing. That means viewership around such stuff is smaller, and the networks need to show that ads are reaching not the most people, but rather the most likely people to be interested in a bottle of soda, a specific kind of running shoe, or a new weight-loss drug.
Doing so on interactive streaming services isn’t just a matter of marrying an ad with a specific show. Instead, advertisers are increasingly using programmatic technology that uses algorithms to align commercials with audiences tied to a specific geographic region or consumer preference. That means technology in many cases has more relevance than the actual content on the screen.
This Year’s Superlatives: Upfront MVP status went to Jane Krakowski, who performed a song-and-dance number (as her “30 Rock” character, Jenna Maroney) at the NBCU upfront, then ran across town to perform another razzle-dazzle with Jane Lynch at the Fox upfront. (Krakowski hosts “Celebrity Name That Tune” for the network.) Did either network know Krakowski was double dipping?
Other upfront frequent fliers included Tina Fey and Shaquille O’Neal.
Meanwhile, there wasn’t necessarily a “song of the upfronts” this year, but there was an entire music genre: Country showed up in a big way, especially at Amazon (where Kacey Musgraves and Shaboozey performed) and Netflix, where “The Hunting Wives” honky-tonk bar Coyote Joe’s was re-created for an onstage line dance performance.
Cuddly canines made an appearance at both WBD (for Animal Planet’s “Puppy Bowl”) and at Netflix, which just acquired streaming rights to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog show.
Easiest applause line this year? Declaring that you’re shooting your show in Los Angeles. And this wasn’t even an L.A. crowd — but enough Hollywood folks were in attendance to cheer on when it was mentioned how “Baywatch” filmed in Venice Beach and “Sunset P.I.” was shooting in the city as well. “It feels nice whenever you can do production here,” Dungey said.
Here are all of Variety’s upfront presentation recaps:
Disney’s 2026 Upfront Goes All in on Savannah Bananas, Billie Jean King and ‘American Horror Story’
YouTube Unveils Exclusive Shows From Alex Cooper, Trevor Noah, Kareem Rahma and More at Upfront
variety.com
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