New 'Fear Factor,' and ESPN streaming: Welcome to the 2025 TV Upfronts

This year's event, revealing media companies' plans for the next TV season, highlight lots of change coming in TV and streaming

(Peyton and Eli Manning sing horribly off key for Disney’s Upfront presentation Tuersday.)

What do the return of Fear Factor, a new streaming service from ESPN and a joke from NBC personality Seth Meyers about disgraced anchor Matt Lauer have in common?

Welcome to the 2025 edition of the TV Upfronts, an industry institution unfolding this week in New York City, hip deep in the massive changes swamping modern media outlets.

Among the biggest news today: A new, long-awaited streaming service from ESPN to be called – wait for it – ESPN (one of the rare moments of good judgment in a media world filled with new, awkward names like Versant and Peacock). At a time when sports events are one of the last bright spots for old school broadcasters and cable channels, ESPN had to break a lot of boundaries to create a streaming service featuring access to content across all of its linear channels on a streaming service that customers don’t need a cable or satellite subscription to access.

ESPN parent company Disney has a presentation before advertisers in New York today – NBC, Fox and Amazon had theirs Monday – so there may be more details divulged then. But they have already revealed an unlimited subscription priced at about $30 monthly or $300 annually; access just to ESPN+ at about $12 monthly or nearly $120 annually. A subscription bundled with Hulu and Disney+ ad-free would be about $45 monthly.

Once upon a time, many years ago, TV’s Upfronts – massive public presentation to show off new stars and programming for the next television season -- were the unofficial starting gun for the television industry. The Upfronts allowed TV providers to sell advertising in May for shows which would run from September to next May. But to do that, they had to outline what they would be airing against competitors every night, hyping new shows and trying to avoid mentioning the series they cancelled.

It’s why the debut of new shows in the fall was such a big deal years ago, with splashy coverage in magazines, TV and newspapers highlighting the new programs and stars

Big streaming services -- which largely started out ad-free and debuted new shows continuously -- disrupted this tradition and the Upfronts receded in importance. But with every major streaming outlet now also selling advertising, Upfront Week has gained more visibility, revealing an industry leaning heavily on sports and unscripted programming, especially in broadcasting and cable.

Here's a few thoughts about the Upfronts based on what I have seen so far:

In an era of cord cutting and streaming, media companies are having a tougher time hiding their reliance on live sports and unscripted shows. Fox executives said they had a better time launching scripted series in the midseason, explaining why their big series with Josh Charles, a comedy based on the popular British series Doc Martin called Best Medicine, wasn’t rolling out until early next year.

It’s a turn around from the days when folks were desperate for the big promotional push that debuting in the fall gave to series – small wonder then that Fox also touted rescuing Celebrity Weakest Link from NBC for fall and rebooting Fear Factor, the gross-out reality TV competition once hosted by Joe Rogan for NBC (no word of whether Rogan, now a popular podcaster, will be involved. My hunch is, probably not.)

Jimmy Kimmel, coming onstage for Disney’s Upfront after a presentation that included loads of athletes from Peyton and Eli Manning to Super Bowl QBs Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts, feigned astonishment, saying. “We used to be gay!” Kimmel also took a moment to get serious and urge advertisers to support CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes in their fight for editorial independence. “You have the power because you have the money,” he told the audience. “Support journalism. It’s important and it doesn’t work without you.”

NBC seemed to be making room in its schedule for NBA by axing a lot of scripted TV series, including Found and The Irrational. Its presentation in New York also hyped a spin off of The Office called The Paper and separate series for the network and Peacock from Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Fox had a long section in its upfront presentation on car racing and football, featuring an uncomfortable appearance by David Letterman – who co-owns an IndyCar racing team – and retired quarterback Tom Brady, who flubbed a pass from the stage into the audience and missed former teammate Rob Gronkowski by a mile.

Streaming services that need to sell advertising are sharing a little more information about subscribers. Disney says 164 million viewers watch Hulu, ESPN+ and Disney+ over their plans featuring ads; Amazon says its Prime Video service reached 130 million subscribers watching ads. In the drive to become more profitable, streaming services like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video have begun selling ads., which means they have to ease up on their previous reluctance to share customer information and tell advertisers who might watch their commercials.

The consolidation of media platforms into combined presentations can make for some odd bedfellows. Media companies with extensive broadcast and cable platforms, like NBCUniversal and Fox, offered presentations showing a wide array of shows across multiple platforms. But it was jarring to see Fox News Channel take major space in Fox’s presentation in ways I couldn’t remember seeing before.

In years past, Fox had always been adept at mostly keeping its entertainment programming separate from its conservative-boosting newschannel. But at Monday’s presentation, Fox anchor Harris Faulkner helped kick off the proceedings and other anchors and reporters including Martha MacCallum and Brett Baier made appearances. It felt like a mainstreaming of Fox News’ right wing message to advertisers, despite the fact that the network paid a $787 million settlement over promoting lies about the 2020 election.

All this and Netflix hasn’t yet offered its presentation, which comes Wednesday afternoon. Buckle up TV fans; its going to be one heck of a ride this year.