upfronts 2012

Like the rest of the Spanish-language media, Discovery U.S. Hispanic is aiming to ride the wave of heightened interest in its programming demographic all the way to the bank. Discovery en Espanol, the division’s flagship channel, will have redubs of existing Discovery series including North America and Earthflight, but it will also feature original series, including a second season of future-focused show 2111 and new series Batalla de Ingenios, Hard Kicks, and Vivir para Contarlo.

ABC is one of those networks you look at and think, “Hey, they’re doing great.” Lots of people talking about their shows, old and new. Then the ratings rise up to disappoint.

Call the Midwife, a six-part series set in 1950s London that was a hit in Britain, will kick off PBS’ new season at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 30, it was announced Tuesday. There’s plenty of Americana as well on public television’s fall schedule, including general election coverage and documentaries on two devastating chapters of U.S. history.

At ESPN’s upfront presentation today, the sports network announced a strategic relationship with Twitter to co-produce unique social experiences around larger sports events. Advertisers will be able to buy into both ESPN’s properties and the Twitter components in a single integrated buy.

With 10 new series, the female-skewing network is reinventing its soapy Sunday night and giving a new comedy the post-Modern Family slot.

Univision, the top-rated Spanish-language network, unveiled its 2012-13 lineup of new and returning shows Tuesday, days after announcing a new digital video network and three Webnovelas.

NBC and Fox showcase the networks’ funny sides with comedies scheduled for the fall and for midseason.

NBC is renewing the Brian Williams-anchored news magazine Rock Center despite a dismal ratings performance in its freshman season. Not only is the show coming back, it is even getting a promotion of sorts. Currently on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m., Rock Center is moving to Thursdays at 10 p.m., a more important time slot because movie companies and auto dealers spend heavily on that night.

Fox has finally completed its metamorphosis into CBS, after being CBS Lite for the last few seasons. Nowadays, the two primary reasons for watching broadcast television are sitcoms and singing shows. And guess what? Fox has plenty of both.

Next season will be interesting or perhaps unusual, but the full turnaround is still in the distance as NBC tries to smash the past.

Britney Spears and Demi Lovato will take to the judges’ panel when the American version of The X Factor returns for a second season, Fox said Monday at the network’s upfront presentation to advertisers.

NBC announced at its upfront presentation to advertisers Monday that it has greenlit a new pirate-themed series, Crossbones and may air the Munsters update, Mockingbird Lane, by midseason

It won’t happen this upfront, but Ted Harbert, the chairman of NBC Broadcasting, moved the ball down field Monday on what could become a major battle on Madison Avenue: whether to shift to C7 ratings. Harbert suggested a rise in time-shifted viewing means networks are undercompensated with the current ratings system that drives the national marketplace. “It’s time to consider a move to a C7 metric,” Harbert said at the NBC upfront presentation.

The Spanish-language network will also launch a rebranding campaign with new logo, tagline and on-air look this fall.

The network adds three new comedies and two new dramas to slate. Glee moves to Thursdays following The X Factor.

The network adds three new comedies and two new dramas to slate. Glee moves to Thursdays following The X Factor.

Most campaigns to keep a beloved program in production can’t change the collective mind of a network but sometimes they find creative ways to keep shows humming along — and these days there are more ways than ever to do that.

Broadcast networks are offering shorter seasons and agreeing to air serialized shows uninterrupted by reruns to fight “cable envy” among series creators.

After months of planning, this week’s upfronts will look more like Fashion Week than a business transaction, featuring celebrity D.J.’s and fancy menus.

Univision unveiled a multiplatform upfront strategy Friday that includes more than a dozen new primetime programs across its terrestrial networks in addition to a number of new online series and several other digital initiatives that will make much of Univision’s programming available to viewers on demand on multiple devices.

What will the new upfront look like? For the upcoming full TV year, GroupM Chief Investment Officer Rino Scanzoni says cable networks might show stronger improvement than the TV market as a whole, and that flat or lower numbers will be in order for broadcast.

The question for the traditional broadcast TV networks this upfront season is, how do you compete with 25 hours of original programming on YouTube’s Awesomeness TV, and Netflix’s ever-popular replays of entertainment, kids and even sports cable programs?

Some in the cable sector are seeing disheartening numbers just as the upfront is about to get under way.

With six new scripted series and a large contingent of returning series, CBS was forced to pull the plug on a pricey ‘CSI’ spinoff.

Warner Bros. TV leads the pack with nine series orders, with Universal TV and CBS TV Studios selling eight and seven projects, respectively.

The TV network unveiled a fall schedule on Sunday that has 10 sitcoms, double the number of dramas it will air. Comedy is being added to two nights, Tuesday and Friday, in addition to the current sitcom nights of Wednesday and Thursday.

Here’s the complete guide to the 2012-13 television season for the five broadcast networks, including which shows will return and which ones are dead — and what’s coming up.

The network’s new shows are the Sex and the City prequel The Carrie Diaries, Arrow, an update on the CBS drama Beauty and the Beast, medical drama First Cut and Cult, about a dark TV show that draws legions of violently obsessed fans.

The sitcom gets a 22-episode pickup for next season.

The ratings-challenged NBC freshmen series Best Friends Forever, Bent, Are You There, Chelsea and Awake will not be back for second seasons. None of the midseason shows’ cancellations came as a surprise.

ABC is picking up today where it left off last night. After renewing reality series Dancing With The Stars, The Bachelor and Shark Tank last night, this morning the network continued with the pickups of two other long-running reality series, America’s Funniest Home Videos and Wife Swap.

The two comedies join Community and 30 Rock in securing additional seasons at the network.

NBC is in some ways better off than it was a year ago, but it still has a long ways to go in its rebuilding process. Its reality and sports shows are strong but dramas have struggled.

As they get set to announce their fall lineups in New York, TV networks look for ways to draw the 18-to-49-year-old demo and reverse troubling ratings trends.

Spanish-language broadcaster Univision is the first network to snag an upfront deal this year. Starcom USA and sibling multicultural media agency Tapestry are committing a significant amount of ad money from Burger King, Mars/Wrigley and Kellogg Co., among other clients, to Univision in the first publicly acknowledged pact in this year’s upfront marketplace.

After ABC renewed the obvious suspects on the scripted side, it is their reality counterparts’ turn. The network has picked up for next season veteran Dancing With The Stars as well as rising star Shark Tank.

ABC has renewed seven series, including comedies Modern Family and The Middle, as well as its popular dramas Grey’s Anatomy and Castle.

NBC is bringing back two more series: dramedy Parenthood and comedy 30 Rock. As expected, the pickup of 30 Rock will be for a seventh and final season, and it is expected to be abbreviated one, consisting of 13-14 episodes.