This year's upfront presentations to advertisers happened against the backdrop of a massive writers' strike. Cheddar News broke down the big takeaways from how networks proceeded with their events and what upcoming TV and streaming shows were presented.

<div class="block">This year&#39;s upfront presentations to advertisers happened against the backdrop of a massive writers&#39; strike. Cheddar News broke down the big takeaways from how networks proceeded with their events and what upcoming TV and streaming shows were presented.</div>

Closing Bell

What We Learned From Upfronts This Year Amid Writers' Strike

And it is that time again up front where networks pitch new programming to advertisers. But this year is happening in the backdrop of a massive writers strike. Our senior reporter Michelle Castillo joins me now to break down what we need to know about the upcoming year on TV and streaming Michelle. What were the big takeaways this week? Hey Kristen. So the writer strike was definitely top of mind. As you pointed out, there are so many W G A East members that were picking outside the annual upfront presentations and you can see some right here and inside the presentations, things were a little bit different. The actors and show creators that we usually see were not there. For example, NBC Universal used its news anchors and ABC brought out Serena Williams to do some of the presentations. Now, another interesting point is we didn't see as many upcoming trailers for TV, shows and movies. So whether this was a decision because the fall schedule is still up in the air, given so many writers haven't really entered the room to start writing the scripts that's remains to be seen, but there is a couple of other things that we're missing, including a full line ups for fall programming. Again, this is probably tied to the writers strike. But also because networks realize that people don't care when shows air anymore and they prefer to watch on demand. So Fox, for example, has notably not released a fall schedule for two years in a interesting, well, I know another big story line here is Netflix having its first outfront ever. Do you think it has what it takes to win in a dollars away from some of these other networks? Let's start with the good stuff. So Netflix had did have to tone down its first official presentation to advertisers. They opted to go virtual in a surprise decision out of respect for the writers strike and overall, it was well received, the company revealed it had five million monthly ad supported subscribers and they also had the number one original TV show on streaming in the US for 15 out of 16 weeks and the top movie for 14 weeks. And those are according to Nielsen, but on to the bad news. So the ad buyers I spoke to said the industry is still a little shaky on Netflix because it failed to hit viewership guarantees. So far. I'm also told the Netflix ad team has been hiring a lot of industry veterans, especially from Hulu to try and convince brands to stay on and it's really trying to highlight its unique audience but buyers overall that I spoke to are skeptical, they're considering that everyone else is streaming these days and that audience might not just be that unique as Netflix is building. You know, the big question I have Michelle is upcoming shows and events we should watch out for. What is this fall slate look like? So it was definitely an unusual year. So we do have a few things to watch out for that might not be your typical TV show. So first up NBC Universal made a big splash announcement about Bravo Con, which will be held in Las Vegas this year. They brought out the cast or the new cast for the Real Housewives of New York as well as the Roy Legacy cast to really show off the star power. Now, if you've gone to an up front before, you know, they usually focus on TV programming. So showing off a fan event is definitely a change of pace, but it does really show how lucrative fandom can be even off screen. And also speaking of events, Warner Brothers, Discovery wants you to remember May 23rd. That's the day that Max, which is the combined HBO Max and discovery service will launch, but they didn't really highlight shows. Instead, the executives really just talked about the potential for Max as a service to show off all that upcoming content from the two companies. But if you do want to date for something, the new sex and the city and just like that season two that's going to debut on June 22nd. All right. Good stuff on tap Michelle Castillo, our senior reporter here at Cheddar News. Michelle. Thank you.