Amazon made its pitch to advertisers at their annual upfront presentation in New York on Wednesday, with the TV arm of the e-commerce giant packing in the star power once again.
Like the great Steve Aoki last year, Diplo got the crowd warmed up with a rousing DJ set that actually got advertisers on their feet. Certainly no small feat.
Diplo was followed by a performance from Kacey Musgraves, who played her new song “Dry Spell” before launching into her hit song “Butterflies.”
But this is the upfronts after all, so all that music was followed by a pitch from Tanner Elton, Amazon’s vice president of ad sales. A tough act to follow, but it turns out the next presenter — Oprah Winfrey — was up for the challenge.
“I came to television…and then somewhere around 1989 I realized that I could use television and not just be used by it because I believed that showing up honestly as myself, my authentic self, could make someone at home feel like they mattered,” Winfrey said.
Paige DeSorbo appeared in a number of video bits about customizing ad delivery, and Tierra Whack then spoke about the power of Twitch streaming. Whack was joined onstage by none other than Ice Spice, who talked about her experience on Twitch during Paris Fashion Week. “Fans aren’t just watching. They’re part of it,” she said. “That kind of reaction, you can only get that on Twitch.”
In keeping with the music theme, Shaboozey then hit the stage to sing about Amazon Sports to the assembled advertisers. “Thursday Night Football’s” Charissa Thompson then arrived, who touted that Amazon’s NFL Wild Card game delivered over 31 million viewers. During a segment where Thompson, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Andrew Whitworth were “taking questions from the audience,” NFL star Matthew Stafford took the stage from the crowd for some sports banter.
Up next was the cast and creator of the upcoming YA series “Off Campus,” which debuts on Prime Video on May 13. They were joined onstage by Courtenay Valenti and Peter Friedlander, Amazon’s heads of film and television respectively.
Amazon has also made making several splashy announcements an annual tradition at their upfront. This year, Prime Video announced a Season 5 renewal of “Reacher,” a series pickup for the romantic drama “Rose Hill,” Aaron Paul joining “Fallout,” acclaimed director Nia DaCosta boarding “Sex Criminals,” a premiere date for Season 3 of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” as well as the Hannah Waddingham-Octavia Spencer spy show “Ride or Die,” and the pickup of the unscripted series “Reality Retreat.”
But that’s not all.
“The Terminal List” star Chris Pratt made an appearance to reveal that Season 2 of the military drama will launch on October 21, more than four years after the first season of the show.
The long-gestating “Fourth Wing” TV series has officially been greenlit, which was announced by none other than recent Oscar winner and series executive producer Michael B. Jordan. He was joined by Lisa Joy, author Rebecca Yaros, and showrunner Meredith Averill.
But “Fourth Wing” is not Jordan’s only project at Amazon. He is also behind the upcoming Muhammad Ali series “The Greatest” at Prime Video as well as the “Creed” spinoff “Delphi,” while he will also star in the upcoming remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair.”
Amazon ad sales boss Alan Moss had the difficult task of closing the show, which he did gamely with help from last year’s Amazon upfront star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who came out once again to hype his upcoming Amazon movie “The Man with the Bag,” in which he will play Santa Claus. Director Adam Shankman helped Arnie sell the picture, promising an action-comedy take on St. Nick.
