‘TV’s Top 5’: The Upfronts Wrap-Up Edition

Welcome to the 259th episode of TV’s Top 5, The Hollywood Reporter’s TV podcast.

Every week, hosts Lesley Goldberg (West Coast TV editor) and Daniel Fienberg (chief TV critic) break down the latest TV news with context from the business and critical sides, welcome showrunners, executives and other guests, and provide a critical guide of what to watch (or skip, as the case may be).

Here’s how this week’s episode plays out:

1. Headlines

Will Ferrell, Anthony Mackie, Seth Meyers, The Other Black Girl and Not Dead Yet lead the week’s non-upfronts TV industry headlines.

2. Upfronts: Amazon, Netflix

The streamers officially made their first in-person pitches to Madison Avenue ad buyers and the strategy Amazon employed — a ton of news! — vs. Netflix’s approach (they’re the culture!) couldn’t be more different.

3. Upfronts: Legacy media companies (aka everyone else)

Warner Bros. Discovery had next to no news (but Shaq + Conan = comedy gold); Fox was a mess; Disney focused on brands like Hulu, Marvel and Star Wars but not its biggest networks (FX, Nat Geo); and NBCUniversal was stuck in 2005.

4. Sportsball!

Easily the biggest talking point across the entire week of upfronts was sports. Yes, Netflix and the NFL are teaming for Christmas Day games for the next three years, but there’s also so much other sports-related and sports-adjacent stuff. Every single upfront presentation featured at least one sports segment, including Netflix and Amazon, both of which are increasingly adding to their sports rosters. Gracing the upfront stages, in no particular order, were Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Tom Brady and Gronk, Jason Kelce, Wayne Gretzky, Roger Federer, Dale Earnhard Jr., Chris Paul and Dawn Staley, among others, as the importance of sports rights continues to grow.

5. Critic’s Corner

As usual, we end with Dan’s thoughts on this week’s new and returning series. In this episode, he weighs in on Apple’s The Big Cigar, Josh Brolin’s Hole (aka Outer Range) on Amazon, season three of Bridgerton on Netflix and Peacock’s docuseries on the 1990s New York Yankees.

Hear it all now on TV’s Top 5. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to never miss an episode. (Reviews welcome!) You can also email us with any topics or Mailbag questions you’d like addressed in future episodes at TVsTop5@THR.com.