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NBC Makes a Nostalgic Pitch to Advertisers at Radio City

Tina Fey, left, and Amy Poehler at the NBCUniversal Upfront at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Monday.Credit...Charles Sykes/NBCUniversal

The TV industry is unveiling its coming season to advertisers in Manhattan this week, at a series of events known as the upfronts. Three New York Times media reporters — John Koblin, Michael M. Grynbaum and Edmund Lee — assess the NBC presentation at Radio City Music Hall on Monday, the first from the four major broadcast networks.

JOHN What a strange start to upfront season. Usually the springtime ritual means 70 degrees, a little sun. Today we were greeted with downpours and a belated winter chill. Advertisers in front of me were complaining that they bothered to wear suits and dress shoes. And while NBC trotted out the Kardashians, “S.N.L.” cast members and Rachel Maddow at Radio City, TV writers were at war with their talent agents, which prompted a string of party cancellations.

EDMUND I’ve been covering upfronts for a decade, and I have to say NBC’s extravaganza looked the same as always. But compared with other blowout media affairs I’ve seen recently, NBC made the best use of the Radio City stage. Google’s YouTube did its version of an upfront on May 2 — full of young fans — and HBO premiered the final season of “Game of Thrones” there last month with a wonky sound system. Score one for the National Broadcasting Company.

MICHAEL While NBC’s ad sales chief, Linda Yaccarino, promised to “future-proof this industry” — whatever that means — the prevailing mode was nostalgia. It opened with a tribute to legendary TV ads (few of which aired after 2005) and a pledge to syndicate old friends like “Jerry and Elaine” on NBC’s as-yet-untitled streaming service. In other words, “Make It 1997 Again Through Science or Magic.” One pitch that got ad execs buzzing was “Para-Norma,” a new Tina Fey project about a woman who investigates ghost murders. Oh, wait! Tina was just kidding. But let’s face facts: We’d watch that.

JOHN Speaking of nostalgia: How ’bout Brian Williams!

EDMUND He was there! For the first time in at least five years! That’s a notable signal of his rehabilitation since he got suspended in 2015 for exaggerating a few personal anecdotes. (How quaint.) Worth adding that Andy Lack, the head of NBC News, is friends with Williams.

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Brian Williams at the NBCUniversal Upfront at Radio City Music Hall on Monday.Credit...Charles Sykes/NBCUniversal

MICHAEL I liked seeing the freshly Oscared Rami Malek effusively praise “Mr. Robot,” on NBCUniversal’s USA channel, for jump-starting his career and say he can’t wait for the next and final season. Showing Constance Wu how it’s done!

EDMUND What’s with all the musicals? Two of the fall-season shows featured song-and-dance schtick. The title character in “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” can hear other people’s thoughts — as full-on choreographed musical numbers. There’s also “Perfect Harmony,” a Bradley Whitford vehicle where he plays a sad-sack former Princeton music professor who teaches a down-on-its-luck choir group to — well, you get the idea.

MICHAEL I’ll look for the infringement suit from “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” Meanwhile, judging by the Beatles song in the sizzle reel, the licensing rights alone must make “Zoey” the season’s priciest new show.

JOHN NBC went with the same message it always does: feel-good programming that can make you laugh, cry, etc., etc. For a second straight year, the network also went hard on the Olympics, this time trotting out 13 female medal winners, including Lindsey Vonn and Tara Lipinski. That was good enough for a standing ovation (last year’s standing O went to the U.S. women’s hockey team).

EDMUND I was struck by Yaccarino’s announcement of a new start date for the NBC streaming service: mid-2020. Back in January, the target was the end of 2019. But the network made an important point: It will be one of the few ad-supported streaming services. Yaccarino also said that NBCUniversal spent $24 billion last year on content. That’s a lofty sum, given that Netflix spent somewhere between $8 billion and $10 billion, and CBS reached about $8 billion. It’s a content arms race.

JOHN Wonder if that’ll be the stat of the week — other than hearing who’s No. 1 — “We spend billions!” We hadn’t seen Jimmy Fallon at an upfront since his ratings slide began in earnest in 2017. He opened today’s proceeding with a spoof of the Apple “1984” commercial. But he didn’t say much: He introduced Yaccarino and promptly exited the stage, leaving Seth Meyers, a late-night host who’s No. 1 in his time slot, to get laughs from the crowd.

MICHAEL Were any of the new shows DVR-worthy? I was disappointed to learn that “Lincoln,” described as “a unique forensic procedural,” was not about Abraham Lincoln solving crimes.

JOHN It is based on the crime novel “The Bone Collector,” which was published in 1997 and made into a movie starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie in 1999. Must See TV!

MICHAEL Fran Drescher of “The Nanny” (1993-99) is returning for a show called “Indebted.” I’ll swear by Fran till the day I croak, but I suspect this one won’t make it that long.

JOHN NBC executives are highest on that one! It’s a multi-cam show that looks like it could be on CBS …

EDMUND Do you guys still use a DVR? I think almost every NBC show I watch, I watch on Hulu: “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “The Good Place,” “Superstore.” All returning.

MICHAEL You don’t use a DVR? (Says the older millennial who refuses to cut the cord.)

JOHN I use a DVR!

EDMUND I never use it, since I’m usually catching things on Hulu, Netflix, HBO Go or Amazon. Speaking of which, Amazon was promoting its Emmy-winning “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” just outside the Radio City marquee. A woman in period costume was handing out black-and-white cookies. When I asked her why Amazon was promoting a show with no advertising outside an event packed with ad executives, a security guard interrupted, asking her to move along.

JOHN Whoa, dirty tricks from Amazon! And if we leave now, we can make it to the Beacon Theater for the Fox upfront.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: A Polished Performance From NBC. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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