Music always plays a large role at the annual TV upfronts, as media buyers, journalists, execs and other attendees are ushered in and out of these showcases to loud playlists — often spun by celebrity DJs. But this year, one number heard throughout the week came with a hefty dose of irony: Doechii’s popular track “Anxiety.”

In the song, Doechii sings about how her anxiety “keep on trying me / My anxiety, can’t shake it off of me.” Perhaps a bit too on the nose for the media congloms to be piping into Radio City Music Hall, the Hammerstein Ballroom and other upfronts venues. After all, no matter how hard media execs try to spin that things are fine — that’s hardly the case: Production is down, budgets keep getting slashed and studios like Paramount Global (still awaiting news on its Skydance merger) continue to be the subject of speculation about their ultimate survival.

Anxiety rules this business, and yet, the show must go on. Last week NBCUniversal, Fox, Disney, Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix and YouTube all promoted their broad portfolios, with varying degrees of success.

Live sports are clearly still the driving factor in the conglomerates’ programming strategies, and movies are part of upfronts now. A decline in scripted programming on the broadcast networks’ fall schedules is a telling sign that the TV business continues to evolve, with some of the biggest scripted bets of next season (like “The Office” follow-up “The Paper”) going to streaming instead of the traditional Big 4.

By the end of upfronts week, attendees heard so many competing pitches for their ad dollars that it was hard to keep the messages straight. But here are some of Variety’s biggest takeaways from the 2025 upfronts.

What Recession?

It’s an undeniable fact: The entertainment business is in rough
financial shape.

Like the rest of the country, media companies have been affected by President Trump’s tariffs and general economic upheaval. The Peak TV era, marked by blank checks for massive tentpole productions, is over. Earnings have taken a hit. Layoffs have impacted thousands. Everyone is on the hunt for more cost-effective programming.

Of course, you’d get very little sense of that had you attended the upfronts. Save for a scant few passing mentions, you’d have no idea that Hollywood is facing these economic choppy times.

Martin Short told the audience at Disney’s presentation that “there’s no tariffs on standing ovations,” earning a guffaw, while one Fox exec at the Manhattan Center told the crowd, “The winds of change continue to sweep through our industry and our economy.”

That’s about it for mentions of anything to do with the economy this upfronts week. Understandably, media companies don’t want to scare advertisers with lots of doom and gloom. Much of TV is about escapism, after all. But completely ignoring reality is not the best policy either.

Scripted Purge on Broadcast

Scripted programming took a big hit on the broadcast networks this upfronts season. With the release of the fall schedules, nearly all of the major broadcasters have shifted their focus to unscripted programming and sports.

The numbers don’t lie: ABC will have only five hours of scripted programming a week in the fall. Fox will have four. NBC canceled five scripted shows, with virtually no pilots in the works to replace them. CBS was the only network that committed heavily to more scripted shows, but even those were mostly spinoffs (sorry, “universe expansions”). Those included “Sheriff Country,” “Boston Blue,” “CIA” and “Y: Marshals.”

Scripted shows cost more to make, and the broadcast networks aren’t drawing nearly as many customers as streamers. And there was never any doubt NBC was going to eventize the return of NBA coverage on the network.

But if there’s one thing broadcast can do well, it’s weekly procedurals and broad comedies. Both formats continue to be popular, but the networks don’t seem in any rush to find the next big show.

One thing’s for sure — the nostalgia reboot/revival wave has officially crashed. NBC axed “Suits LA” after just one season, despite the original show’s massive streaming success. The network also canceled the “Night Court” follow-up with Melissa Rauch and John Larroquette after three seasons, even though it started out strong in the ratings. Maybe it’s time for some original ideas to get their time in the spotlight?

What’s in a Name?

Whomever media companies are paying to come up with the names for new platforms deserves either a raise or a demotion.

A major theme of the upfronts was branding or rebranding (or re-re-branding, in one case) with names that lacked creativity.

Among the top stories of the week, Warner Bros. Discovery revealed that Max would be known as HBO Max … again. Two years after the David Zaslav regime dropped the HBO part of its streaming service’s name, HBO boss Casey Bloys announced onstage that “HBO Max” was back — earning a wide range of reactions, from laughter to applause. It could have been worse. They could have gone with Max+.

Meanwhile, Disney unveiled its ESPN streaming service, which will be called … ESPN. The streamer will offer an unlimited plan that includes all ESPN networks and ESPN broadcasts on ABC for $30 a month. The irony is, that’s more than is currently offered on ESPN+. As Jimmy Kimmel put it during his annual upfront roast, “The plus is now, in many ways, a minus.”

Finally there is Versant, the spinoff of NBC-Universal that will house cable brands like USA Network, Syfy, E!, CNBC and MSNBC. Aside from the fact that no one can tell you what “Versant” means, the name lacks the pop of SpinCo, the moniker the company used before someone landed on its official name.

“We Come to This Place for Ad Sales”

It’s official — movies are as much a part of upfronts as TV.

While upfronts were once exclusively about television shows, feature films now play a major role in media company pitches to advertisers.

NBCUniversal, for the second year in a row, spent a lot of time talking up “Wicked” and its sequel, “Wicked: For Good.” Donna Langley, chairman, NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios, and director Jon M. Chu both took the stage to hype the sequel and reveal trailers and a musical special coming to NBC. Not only that, but ad sales chief Mark Marshall made his entrance from the rafters dressed in a Glinda-inspired pink suit.

Amazon’s upfront featured appearances by John Cena, Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who talked up their upcoming films with Prime Video. Courtenay Valenti, Amazon’s head of theatrical and streaming film, hit the stage to delve into the film slate. She talked about Amazon’s “Thomas Crown Affair” reboot with Michael B. Jordan — with Jordan himself coming out to reveal a series spinoff of the “Creed” film franchise.

Over at the Warner Bros. Discovery upfront, the company devoted a big portion of its presentation to James Gunn and Peter Safran, co-heads of DC Studios. In fairness, that included DC TV shows like “Peacemaker” Season 2 and the upcoming “Lanterns,” but it also had Gunn, Safran and Shaquille O’Neal revealing a brand-new trailer for Gunn’s “Superman” movie.

While companies are all about showing off their entire portfolios to advertisers, it’s still jarring to see that TV is only a portion of the upfronts experience now.

Sports, Sports, Sports

Sports programming has always been a major factor at the upfronts, but never more so than now. Linear TV still has the edge when it comes to live sports, and outlets like NBC are making the most of that. The broadcaster made its 11- year deal for NBA and WNBA rights a central part of its upfront, bringing out multiple current stars and revealing that Michael Jordan will be part of the network’s basketball coverage.

Other traditional TV outlets, in an effort to stave off live sports gains made by streamers, have gone all in not just on major players like the NFL, the NBA and the NHL, but also on basically any sports rights deal they can get their hands on. College-level sports of all kinds and smaller leagues got their time in the spotlight.

But streamers made their sports presence felt more than ever. YouTube will livestream an NFL game for free in 2025. Amazon and Netflix announced major games for “Thursday Night Football” and the Christmas Day doubleheader, respectively. Netflix got NFL commissioner Roger Goodell onstage (in a Santa coat, no less) to announce the 2025 Christmas surprise.

Of course, not all the sports moments were highlight reel-worthy. At Fox’s presentation, Tom Brady somehow missed an easy pass to Rob Gronkowski, with the ball sailing into the crowd, while Blake Griffin got smoked in a Pop-a-Shot shoot-off against former NFL star Ryan Fitzpatrick

Upfronts Report Card

Amazon

Grade: A
Best star moment: Jamie Lee Curtis and Arnold Schwarzenegger going off script
Best pitch: Michael B. Jordan revealing “Creed” spinoff series “Delphi”
Best use of music: Lizzo performing “About Damn Time” live
Worst use of jargon: “Full funnel advertising”
Biggest bet on a show: “Spider-Noir”

Amazon made its presence felt in a big way for the second consecutive year, boasting A-list star power with memorable moments (like Schwarzenegger hogging the stage until Curtis finally pulled him off) 
that fired up the crowd.

Disney

Grade: A
Best star moment: Jimmy Kimmel auctioning naming rights to his grandchild
Best pitch: “Alien: Earth” taking over the room
Best use of music: The Manning brothers’ song and dance number
Worst use of jargon: “Our Disney Compass platform is live and advancing privacy-focused data collaboration.”
Biggest bet on a show: “Alien: Earth”

Disney knows how to put on a show. The Mouse House organized a tightly run presentation boasting a range of stars from across its entire portfolio, complete with musical numbers, “Star Wars” droids and Kimmel roasting everyone and everything.

Fox

Grade: C-
Best star moment: Michael Strahan picking up David Letterman
Best pitch: YA/Gen Z crowd’s obsession with Tubi
Best use of music: Jamie Foxx restarting a song because the crowd wasn’t energetic
Worst use of jargon: “It’s a lean-forward experience”
Biggest bet on a show: Biblical limited series “The Faithful”

Fox kept things to a relatively short 90 minutes, which may not have been too difficult given its lack of scripted programming and overabundance of Fox News. And condolences to whoever got drilled by that errant football courtesy of Tom Brady.

NBCUniversal

Grade: B
Best star moment Michael Jordan appearing (via video) to announce involvement in NBA on NBC
Best pitch “Wicked” taking center stage for the second year in a row
Best use of music John Tesh playing “Roundball Rock” with an orchestra
Worst use of jargon Stop trying to make “Versant” happen, NBCU. As Seth Meyers joked, it sounds like a medication, not a media organization.
Biggest bet on a show NBA on NBC

NBCU’s presentation took two hours and felt even longer. But the company had a lot to promote (including fan favorites BravoCon and “Wicked”), and shout-out to Mark Marshall for risking his life with his flying entrance.

Netflix

Grade: A
Best star moment: Jerry Jones going way off script
Best pitch: Jude Law and Jason Bateman teasing “Black Rabbit”
Best use of music: “Thunderstruck” featuring the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders
Worst use of jargon: “Our biggest titles … are not just shows anymore. They’re vibes.”
Biggest bet on a show: “Stranger Things” final season

Netflix put on a much heftier showcase of its new and returning offerings than it did last year. The presentation ran barely 80 minutes, but packed in a ton of info and news.

Warner Bros. Discovery

Grade: B-
Best star moment: Conan O’Brien frantically pitching the NEO ad platform
Best pitch: Conan O’Brien frantically pitching the NEO ad platform
Best use of music: Guns N’ Roses’ “Patience” in the “Task” trailer
Worst use of jargon: “We believe HBO Max far better represents our current consumer proposition.”
Biggest bet on a show: “Dancing With Sharks” (yes, that’s a real show)

Warner Bros. Discovery was doing well at first, but its event went on too long. Maybe Tony Shalhoub didn’t need to hype his bread show? This upfront also definitely lacked the razzle-dazzle and star power of years past.

YouTube

Grade: B-
Best star moment: Lady Gaga’s rollicking five-song set
Best pitch: Creator Brittany Broski saying her BroskiReport podcast channel has “1 million subscribers who never hit the ‘Skip ad’ button”
Best use of music: Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” as CEO Neal Mohan’s walk-on song
Worst use of jargon: “Culture,” as in YouTube is “the epicenter of culture”

YouTube had only one major piece of content news to share: Its rights deal with the NFL to livestream a free game in the 2025 season. They did a good job of showcasing new ad formats, creators and marketing results. And Gaga’s performance brought down the house.

This story originally appeared in the May 21 print issue of Variety