ABC Upfront (Snooze) Presentations

There was a guy sitting in front of me at the ABC Upfront presentation yesterday in Lincoln Center that was snoring so loudly one of is colleagues had to walk across the aisle to nudge him awake because he was disturbing those around him.  And that pretty much summed up the whole presentation – and kind of gave you a sense at the lack of excitement offered by the network next season.

With all the buzz about the Upfronts being scaled back because of the impact of the WGA strike, ABC was the only network not to plan a buzz-worthy presentation and all important after party.  I think by the time they figured out that the other networks weren’t really holding back, it was a little too late. It was good fodder for Jimmy Kimmel who took to the stage to take a few shots at the networks…his own included.  Jimmy was the highlight of an otherwise boring presentation – well the highlight until we got to see some footage from this week’s LOST.  (No worries, I won’t spoil you).

Steve McPherson took the stage and walked us through the primetime schedule for next season.  It looked nearly identical to ABC’s current schedule, but I don’t really have many complaints.  They are trying to spend more money in relaunching it’s Freshman shows (Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money, etc) and I’m all for that actually.  McPherson did show us a list of a number of show they are developing for launch hopefully later this year. Some looked ok, but nothing really jumped out at me. Well, maybe ‘In the Motherhood’, which was an internet show which was actually very funny.  But I can’t say there was a lot of excitement in the air about a laundry list of potential shows, most of which will never make it to your TV.

I’m starting to wonder if the “A” in ABC really stands for Ashton, because for a guy that doesn’t appear on the network at all, I certainly heard Ashton Kutcher’s name a lot yesterday.  He’s the creator of two new reality shows for ABC.  One is a beauty pageant type show with Tyra Banks (Zzzz) and the other is OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, a new family-based game show that looks perfect for ABC Family but a little boring for an ABC primetime show.

The only two new scripted shows on the schedule is a remake of the fantastic BBC show, LIFE ON MARS and a new animated comedy, THE GOODE FAMILY.

We saw a bit of LIFE ON MARS yesterday and I don’t think it really got anyone’s attention.  I’m nervous that they’re going to butcher the BBC version.  But given that my favorite show is a remake of a BBC hit that was also expected to bomb, I guess I have to give it the benefit of the doubt.  But the buzz from advertisers as we were leaving Lincoln Center was not good.  I heard one person saying that the show looked “boring” and someone else wondering just who would watch it. You never know – maybe this will be a huge hit and surprise us all.

THE GOODE FAMILY, a new comedy from the creators of KING OF THE HILL got a few laughs.  It centers around a family who try to live their life as examples to others.  From just saying no to meat, to recycling, to adopting a boy from South Africa (hey he was supposed to be black, not a pudgy white kid), the Goode family lives their life the best they know how…even if it’s a little self serving.  There was no footage shown, just early drawings, but I thought it looked pretty funny.

The show that got the biggest response from the audience will be premiering in just a few weeks. WIPEOUT is a new game show where contestants are forced through a massive, elaborate and very difficult obstacle course.  There’s nothing that TV viewers like better than to see someone making an ass out of themselves and possibly getting hurt doing so.  The early footage garnered equal amount of laughter and cringing from the audience, but overall it seemed people enjoyed it and got a few laughs.  I think I’ll be watching it…you know, assuming it’s on a night when I don’t have something better to watch.

The presentation ended on a high note when the audience was shown footage from this week’s episode of LOST.  It was gooood, and I was wiping back tears while sitting in my seat surrounded by strangers.  But I wasn’t the only one so I didn’t feel so bad. The footage ended and there was this murmur throughout the building that had to be music to the ears of all the ABC executives in the house.  They are going to miss LOST when it goes away.

So that was ABC.  Any questions?