Paramount Clocks in With ’60 Minutes’ For First Cross-Company Upfront Presentation

variety.com:

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe venue was the same, but Paramount Global’s inaugural upfront presentation at Carnegie Hall took a very different approach compared to the CBS presentations of old.Jo Ann Ross, longtime CBS ad sales chief, still opened the show without pomp and circumstance, introducing an event that was designed to run an hour playing off the them of CBS’ signature newsmagazine “60 Minutes.” In reality, it ran about an hour and 20 minutes.In what has become a theme of the upfronts this year, media buyers spent much of the hour watching pre-taped pieces, sprinkled with in-person pitches from talent and executives.

Rather than focusing on new series clips, it was “60 Minutes” anchors producing and hosting what were in essence branded custom content videos for their corporate parent. (“The Late Late Show” host James Corden came out at 5:09 p.m.

ET noting how, well, the “60 Minutes” idea didn’t quite work as planned.)CBS News’ Scott Pelley introduced a “60 Minutes” style package that featured Paramount talent including Miranda Cosgrove (“iCarly”) and “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah also promoting the company’s portfolio.Media buyers watched a serious of promotion spots extolling other properties and genres as well. “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl introduced another package from the newsmagazine highlighting Paramount entries including MTV’s “The Real World” and “Jersey Shore,” CBS’ “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race,” VH1’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and others.“We created this genre that is going to outlive all of us,” “Survivor” host Jeff Probst said in the clip. “They haven’t knocked ‘Survivor’ off the top of the mountain.