Front and Center

Vol. 1 Issue 8 – 18th May 2024

May 18, 2024

On that front

Ever wonder why sometimes a barrage of announcements about new shows & movies take over the headlines all at once? Release dates, renewals, trailers and first looks galore. Well, there is a method to this madness, and it’s called the ‘Upfront’. Traditionally, upfront week takes place in the third week of May. The different broadcast networks, entertainment studios and now even streaming platforms in the United States hold presentations and events for advertisers and the media, mainly to secure the sale of ads for their upcoming programming roster.
Originally, the upfronts were just limited to the television industry and their primetime schedule, the name coming from the “up front” purchase of ad spots done months in advance, before a show aired. Though presently, with a decline in TV viewership, while commercial airtime is still up for sale, digital giants like Netflix and Amazon are also luring advertisers to invest in their ad tier subscription model with which a subscriber would have regular ad intervals for a lesser price, than an uninterrupted viewing experience for full price. The presentation also acts as a promotional opportunity, to excite and engage the press and the fans by releasing the slate of content one can look forward to.

So, without further ado, here are some highlights from the 2024 upfronts!

HBO’s Warner Bros Discovery presentation unveiled the teaser for the Dune prequel series, Dune: Prophecy, exploring the sisterhood of Bene Gesserit, streaming this Fall. (The show will also star Indian actress, Tabu!)
Disney’s Marvel Studios confirmed the final title and announced the release date of Agatha All Along as September 18th! Disney, under its other brands also showed the first look of the Wizards of Wavery Place sequel, and release dates and teasers for The Bear (June 27th) and Only Murders in the Building (August 27th).
Amazon Studios announced the development of a Legally Blonde prequel series, Elle, coming out in 2025. They also updated The Summer I Turned Pretty fans that the new season has started filming and will be streaming in Summer 2025.
NBC Universal released the much-awaited trailer of their musical adaptation of Wicked, releasing Thanksgiving 2024!
While not as a part of the upfronts, in the same week Sony dropped the trailer for the screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, It Ends With Us, releasing in theatres on August 9th!

And to give you a sense of just how crucial the upfronts are for the networks and streaming services, last year’s upfronts generated $19.1 billion for linear television while streaming video totalled $8.0 billion in upfront dollars!

Jump on the bandwagon

It doesn’t matter if you’re not looking for a guy in finance, trust fund, 6’5”, blue eyes, the viral audio has been remixed an umpteen number of times online, so use it as loose inspiration to look for your type. Here’s mine.
A daughter tried to prank her mom by telling her that Jesus was seen in Ohio, and recorded her reaction and now I can’t stop saying show it to me please, send it to me Rachel anytime there is something mildly interesting I want to know about.
King Charles’ official portrait is…not it. 👹
Actor Glen Powell is having a moment, post the very successful Anyone But You, he will be seen in Hit Man, Twisters, The Running Man, Chad Powers, Monsato and J.J. Abrams’ next movie. Phew. His parents are not so sure about his new-found fame though.

Glen Powell's Parents Trolled the Actor at 'Hit Man' Premiere

All everyone’s talking about is Bridgerton’s Season 3 as the first 4 episodes dropped on Thursday. Catch up on the show (and the memes) before the next half drops on June 13th, you have enough time.

All the rage

“Aura nails” will be everywhere this summer. The design borrows from the hues that aura photography gives off, with a darker shade of any colour saturated in the middle, and its lighter shade surrounding it. Opt for a single colour or a different one for each finger.
Speaking of colours, have the Adidas Sambas had their time in the sun? There’s a new (well, old) colourful range of sneakers in town. The Nike Cortez is being spotted more and more on some of our favourite fashionable celebrities.

What Cannes I say

Some of the biggest movies of the year have already premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and received a few-minute-long standing ovations as always. This includes George Miller’s (Mad Max) Furiosa, Yorgos Lanthimos’ (The Favourite, Poor Things) Kinds of Kindness and Francis Ford Coppola’s (The Godfather) Megalopolis. Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Little Women, Barbie) is serving as Jury President and Meryl Streep has been awarded an honorary Palme d'Or. The Selena Gomez starrer Emilia Perez and The Apprentice (Sebastian Stan playing Donald Trump), will also be screened at the festival.
But as with any event, the red-carpet fashion is equally talked about, if not more. Naomi Campbell, French singer Yseult, Anya Taylor Joy, Meryl Streep and Hunter Schafer have been some of the scene stealers so far. And the less we talk about Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s looks, the better. It’s not worth it.

Sound off

This Friday, two new albums, Zayn’s ROOM UNDER THE STAIRS, and Billie Eilish’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, were released. No, I’m not screaming their album’s names, coincidentally they both have stylized the titles to be capitalised in uppercase for some reason. You can listen to them below!
Also, Gracie Abrams revealed the tracklist of her upcoming album and the track 5 called “us.” features Taylor Swift! It comes out June 21st!