Dear Gossips,
The TV upfronts continue, and yesterday, Disney pulled out all the stops, bringing a hit parade of celebrities to promote their shows across ABC, Hulu, and Disney+.
This includes the Only Murders golden trio of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez; Daredevil’s Charlie Cox, accompanied by the news that Krysten Ritter will return as Jessica Jones for Daredevil: Born Again season two; Glen Powell repping his upcoming Hulu football comedy Chad Powers; my beloved Timothy Olyphant, who rolled out of bed on behalf of the upcoming Alien spin-off series, Alien: Earth; and The Bear stars Ayo Edebiri, Jeremy Allen White, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who was having the MOST fun:
But really I want to talk about Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks during the upfront presentation. He always introduces the Disney/ABC team, and he always does a roast, joking about their competitors but saving his harshest jokes for the home team, making fun of ABC’s flat ratings, at a time when network viewership rose overall. But he ended his set with an unusual plea to support 60 Minutes, a news program on a rival network, saying, “I know it’s not part of our multi-platform, but support ‘60 Minutes’ — they deserve it. You have the power, because you have the money. Support journalism. It’s important, and it doesn’t work without you.”
“You” being the advertisers, who so far have not bailed on network news even as the president is engaged in multiple fights with various networks and their parent companies. So far, it’s been the media companies bending to presidential pressure, as if appeasement ever worked for anyone. Kimmel’s comments come after longtime 60 Minutes producer Bill Owens left the show, citing a loss of “independence from corporate”. Lainey wrote about that here.
It's a sign of where we’re at that a comedian is using a comedy set during a corporate presentation—a context in which no one is looking to be serious—to plead with advertising companies to continue to support news media, something that wasn’t in jeopardy six months ago (beyond algorithm f-ckery, that is). Lainey asked how long the fourth estate can remain standing when it’s under authoritarian threat. If we’re already at the point of depending on comedians to remind advertisers not to pull their last remaining dollars that support journalism, probably not very long.
Live long and gossip,
Sarah
