Fox Upfront: Here’s What Happened At The Hammerstein Ballroom

Lynette Rice
·5 min read
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Lego Masters host Will Arnett kicked off the 2024 Fox Upfront by introducing most of the celebrity players for the new season, including Jon Hamm, Olivia Culpo, Tom Brady and of course Rob Lowe, who he introduced as coming straight from St. Elmo’s Fire.

What else happened at the presentation in the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City? Read on.

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  • Michael Strahan and Gordon Ramsay kicked off the show in the theater-in-the-sound setting, and it took all of 20 seconds before Ramsay dropped his first f-bomb (over how he promised that everyone would have chairs this year. Apparently, they did). The duo riffed about their pairing as hosts and Ramsay cussed some more before they brought out Jeff Collins, President of Advertising Sales, Marketing and Brand Partnerships. “The Fox portfolio is designed to drive maximum impact for your brand,” he said in a statement that absolutely no one has ever heard before at a NY upfront. The network’s ad-support audience is up 15 percent, he added, while 18-49 viewers are up a “massive” 33%.

  • Hamm took center stage to quickly tout the network’s animation lineup, including the second season of his show Grimsburg. Arnett then followed him on stage and quipped, “Look who Rob Wade bullied into making two appearances tonight?” He brought out a lego flute to gift to Hamm, but it was Joel McHale of Animal Control who came out to sort of play it (with the help of dubbing off-camera).

  • Erin Andrews was briefly on stage to address Fox Sports before changing the subject to Tubi, which she says has 80 million monthly active viewers. “It’s the best kept secret in entertainment today,” Andrews bragged, before introducing Tubi CEO Anjali Sud who claimed that 60 percent of Tubi viewers are cord cutters and 90 percent of Tubi views is on demand. Among the upcoming offerings on Tubi: Culpo will host a purple carpet fashion show before the Super Bowl; Lauren Graham will headline The Z Suite about a CEO of an ad agency who works with a bunch of young employees who are put in charge of the company; and Noah Beck and Siena Agudong will headline the movie The QB Bad Boy and Me.

  • Lowe’s turn in front of the crowd. He talks up The Floor (it was TV’s No. 1 game show, he says) that will be back in the fall, along with his other series 9-1-1: Lone Star. “We will be full throttle with the emergencies that keep you on the edge of your seats,” he added. He then introduces the trailer for Rescue: Hi Surf, John Wells’ new lifeguard drama that scored the post-Super Bowl spot Feb. 9 on Fox.

  • Molly Parker introduces her new medical procedural Doc, a U.S. adaptation of the popular Italian series Nelle tue mani. It centers on the hard-charging, brilliant Dr. Amy Elias, Chief of Internal and Family Medicine at Westside Hospital in Minneapolis. After a brain injury erases the last eight years of her life, Amy must navigate an unfamiliar world where she has no recollection of patients she’s treated, colleagues she’s crossed, the soulmate she divorced, the man she now loves and the tragedy that caused her to push everyone away.

  • Strahan, Curt Menifee and Rob Gronkowski promote Fox Sports before making a ham-handed transition to Fox News journalist Benjamin Hall, who was seriously injured while reporting in Ukraine. Hall gets a standing ovation as he takes the stage to talk about the “dedicated journalists” of Fox News. Oh I get it; Hall is the sympathetic transition/human shield before Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Dana Perino take over to promise lots of super, great and balanced coverage of the election this year.

  • Anthony Anderson says the thing he loves about Fox is how they “own the moment.” “This fall …. we are doing all of that with The Real Full Monty.” In case you missed it, Anderson, along with Taye Diggs, Chris Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs, James Van Der Beek, Bruno Tonioli and Tyler Posey will supposedly strip for cancer awareness in this two-hour special.

  • Jamie Foxx embarrasses Fox CEO Rob Wade by making him stand up three times before riffing on Fox programming. Actually it’s not exactly clear what Foxx’s purpose was, but he dropped a few expletives while doing it. He also talked up his show Beat Shazam before teasing how Fox in June will pay tribute to the Negro Leagues during an MLB game. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez come out to talk it up, too.

  • Ramsay returns to the stage with Lisa Vanderpump to promote Food Stars. They were followed by McHale and Ken Jeong, who pretty much just fill air.

  • Sports commentator Gus Johnson brought out Deion Sanders to chat about college football as a way to promote the pregame show Big Noon on Saturdays.

  • Strahan is back to remind everyone that Fox has the Super Bowl and Tom Brady, who takes the stage in a gauntlet of smoke. “You’re too pretty, I can’t even look at you in the eye,” said Strahan of the new Fox Sports commentator. Oof. He then takes a question from the audience. Oh look, it’s Gronkowski. “You’re the rookie now, brother, and dinner is on you tonight,” he says to Brady.

  • Ramsay comes out to join Strahan and Brady to yell “Let’s f*cking go.” New Orleans horn players take the stage as the show wraps at 5:35 p.m. ET.

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