So based mostly on that reply, I believe I already know what you’d say to this subsequent query, however, with the presentation within the books, will we see you again at upfront week subsequent yr?
I plan on being—I hope so [laughs]. I believe NBC shall be there. I believe our intention is to proceed to do this and kick off the week. It could be good if it wasn’t the day after Mom’s Day. However we’ll get to work on that.
You talked about Mom’s Day on stage, and the way folks have to usually journey on it to get to NBCU’s upfront. You used to journey your self. Why was it vital to you to say that?
I believe we now have an unbelievable historical past of creating Mom’s Day difficult for all the business due to the slot we’ve been assigned over time [laughs]. And so many individuals in our business are females who’re leaving their households, and I believed it was applicable to acknowledge the efforts that they’re making to indicate as much as our present.
You had already been tapped to guide the upfront earlier this yr, however how does Linda’s exit have an effect on negotiations?
I don’t assume it adjustments something on that aspect of issues. Clearly, I labored with Linda for 10 years. We had been aligned when it comes to getting the worth for our content material and our properties. So I don’t assume it actually adjustments an entire lot on that aspect of what we’re doing.
Concerning the writers strike—plus different guilds, like the administrators guild, are going to have contract negotiations— how does the strike have an effect on negotiations, or is there some level later the place that comes into play?
I don’t assume so. We really feel actually nice concerning the schedule that we now have during the tip of this yr, so hopefully, this involves a decision briefly order. However we really feel actually good about it. This was not a shock. We had been game-planning for the previous yr on that. So we really feel nice concerning the content material that we now have already shot.
You talked about on stage that this was your first time closing issues out. For subsequent yr, what do you wish to do in another way? What do you wish to proceed?
I believe we’re simply centered on getting by this upfront of the place we’re at. And yearly, we do a post-analysis of what labored and what we’d love to do in another way on the present. We haven’t achieved that thus far. However I believe we had been very pleased and had nice suggestions from the purchasers to this point.
You stated Nick Jonas was your favourite of the Jonas Brothers earlier than bringing him out to carry out. Is he actually your favourite?
Yeah, by the way in which, he’s the nicest man. I met him backstage and was tremendous partaking. Actually a pleasant man. He’s the one Jonas Brother I do know. He’s completely my favourite. I believe he did an exceptional job.
And talking of that, you had nice performers, with Nick Jonas, Grace Potter and Reba McEntire. Are you able to speak about getting that expertise there?
I give all of the credit score to [Josh Feldman, evp, head of marketing and advertising creative for NBCUniversal] and workforce. These guys put collectively the present. They began engaged on it about six months forward of time and clearly had many pivots this yr. I believed they did a terrific job. And as I stated, I believe it demonstrated the breadth of our content material, together with even a musical [number] with Reba, who shall be on The Voice. We simply had the Jonas Brothers on The Immediately Present final week. It was a proud second to see all of that content material come collectively throughout the present this yr.
