Warner Bros. Discovery paid tribute to CNN founder Ted Turner on Wednesday at the opening of its upfront presentation, one that might be the last the company holds as a stand-alone business.
After a brief video of Turner, Anderson Cooper called him a “bold visionary.” “The legacy that he built continues to inspire this industry, every day and it will for years to come,” Cooper said. “So, before we start today’s presentation, I just wanted to leave you with this famous Ted saying, which feels appropriate for today: Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.”
Warner Bros. Discovery is currently being merged with David Ellison’s Paramount, a move that saw plans to spin off the former’s cable network group into a separate unit scrapped.
Today’s hourlong presentation at Madison Square Garden started with a very cable TV-heavy focus before bringing out the stars of The Pitt and M. Night Shyamalan to add a bit of glamor.
Robert Voltaggio and Ryan Gould, co-President of U.S. Advertising Sales, kicked things off. Voltaggio joked, “We want to address the Ellison… I mean elephant in the room.”
“We don’t deflect,” added Gould. “That’s not who we are. Everyone here knows that there’s change ahead and that there’s change in our company, but there’s change across the entire media industry.”
L-R: François Arnaud and Robbie Graham-Kuntz at the WBD upfront
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
The company skated towards its sports slate with a short introduction from Heated Rivalry stars François Arnaud and Robbie Graham-Kuntz (the “smoothie guy”) before sports broadcaster Adam Lefkoe talked up its rights including NHL on TNT as well as Dunkman, a professional dunk league established by Shaquille O’Neal, who came out briefly, after a similar stint at Disney’s upfront Tuesday, in a band costume.
Shaq was followed by Leslie Jones, who is hosting Roast My Rental, a new short-term rental rescue series for HGTV. She joked about the number of cable networks that WBD operates. “How many more shows y’all gonna give me because Roast My Rental is gonna be a hit,” she said, before passing over to a hyped up Terry Crews, host of Food Network’s new competition series 100 Cooks.
Then, there was news. CNN’s Cooper was joined by Kaitlan Collins and Abby Phillip to talk up its news schedule, new shows and weather app, while Craig Ferguson touted his new show American on Purpose with some words about Cooper. “That’s Vanderbilt hair,” he joked.
The network also has a slate of new shows from David Chang and Fred Armisen is Lost in Sound as well as a second season of Eva Longoria: Searching for France.
Over the past few years, movies have had more presence at the upfronts, and 40 minutes into the WBD presentation the company talked up the opportunities for its film slate. Dana Nussbaum, co-head of global motion picture marketing at Warner Bros. Pictures, teased movies such as a new version of Gremlins; Oceans, with Margot Robbie and Bradley Cooper; as well as a clip of Jack Black and Jason Momoa from the set of A Minecraft Movie 2, which they promised was “bigger, badder and blockier.”
Shyamalan shared details about his upcoming supernatural romantic thriller Remain, while revealing that it was the highest-testing movie of his career.
The biggest cheer of the morning was reserved for the stars of HBO Max’s The Pitt: Noah Wyle and Katherine LaNasa.
“We’re about to start a production on Season 3,” Wyle said. “It’s set in early November, just before the holidays, ushering in a whole new set of emergencies and confrontations and complications.”
The stars of The Big Bang Theory spinoff Stuart Fails to Save the Universe then got into character ahead of a trailer for the HBO Max “apocalyptic nightmare” comedy, which also announced its premiere date: July 23.
Kevin Sussman, Lauren Lapkus, Brian Posehn and John Ross Bowie event joked about the show’s title, which was a long time coming.
“Our show is called Stuart Fails to Save the Universe,” said Sussman. “Is it though?” asked Bowie. “Well, there could be any number of titles depending on what universe we’re in. It’s simple string theory, really,” Lapkus added.
There was a brief, very brief discussion of The White Lotus with an image of Laura Dern, who replaced Helena Bonham Carter in the Mike White-created series.
