Upfront Wrap: Women hot, the money’s not, Kimmel suggests therapy

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Upfront week officially ended around 11:50 a.m. Eastern Standard Time today. That’s when CW Chief Executive Dawn Ostroff paraded that network’s young stars — most of whom looked as if they’d fallen out of an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog — on the stage of the theater at Madison Square Garden to give media buyers one last chance to leer before deciding where to place their commercials.

For four days, five broadcast networks and a handful of cable channels did their best to try to persuade advertisers they know how to reach the young men, teens or any number of other demographics or niche audiences and that buying any other network would be a waste of their time and money. Jimmy Kimmel, ABC’s late-night talk show host, probably summed it up best when he cracked to advertisers: “Every year we lie to you, and every year you come back for more. You don’t need an upfront. You need therapy.’

Therapy may come this year in the form of a reality check. Other than CBS, the networks don’t have a lot of positives in their ratings performances to point to this season. It wouldn’t matter if they did. Advertisers don’t have a lot of money to spend. Normally, the upfront takes about a week to wrap up. This year, it could drag on all summer. Some networks are willing to wait. Rob Tuck, executive vice president of sales for the CW, said he’s willing to skip the upfront if the price isn’t right. ‘If we have to sell in scatter all year long, we’ll do it.’

A few trends emerged out of upfront week. It used to be that young men were the hot demographic that everyone went after. This year it’s women. Never mind that women already watch more television than men and, hence, are easier for advertisers to reach. Fox, CBS and the CW all stressed women when talking about their fall schedules. There are already several cable networks, including Lifetime, Oxygen and Bravo, aimed at women, not to mention daytime and morning. Are there really more slices in the pie?

Doing more with less was the other big story of the week. Every network stressed fiscal responsibility with regard to production costs. Fox’s Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly said shows that had five story editors will now get three. At the same time, they all said viewers at home won’t notice any difference on the screen. That begs the question of just how bloated the creative process has become over the years.

On a lighter note, the best quote of the week goes to Greg Garcia, creator of the canceled NBC sitcom ‘My Name Is Earl,’ who said, ‘It’s hard to be too upset about being thrown off the Titanic.’

Best crack of the week, also at NBC’s expense, goes to CBS sales chief JoAnn Ross, who made fun of NBC’s argument that ratings don’t matter. “Not keeping score might work in t-ball, but at CBS we are playing in the big leagues,” she said.

Prediction: After this year’s upfront, no one will be looking to keep score for a little while.

— Joe Flint