Troy Aikman and Joe Buck also pontificated about ABC, ESPN and ESPN+ having 35% more NFL games and the Super Bowl coming to the company in 2027 and 2031.
Peyton Manning previewed the company’s live events, including Dancing With the Stars, which is returning to ABC this fall after airing exclusively on Disney+ last season, and the CMAs, which Manning is returning to host in 2023. David Muir shared stories from World News Tonight, and Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan and George Stephanopoulos talked about some of their biggest interviews.
Hours before the upfront, ABC announced its fall lineup, which includes a golden years version of The Bachelor franchise called The Golden Bachelor, and host Jesse Palmer came onstage to talk about being a part of the season, even giving out roses to Kim and Khloe Kardashian, who shared that The Kardashians was renewed for 20 more episodes on Hulu, ahead of Season 3’s May 25 debut. Ryan Seacrest introduced several of Disney’s other biggest upcoming series, like the return of FX’s The Bear and Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building.
Marveling at footage
Marvel Studios president Feige once again presented at the event, evangelizing Marvel’s success on Disney+.
“I’m pleased to share that when you compare our Marvel series to some of the buzziest shows on competitive services, even our smallest series reached a much larger and more international audience, often two to three times the number of views,” Feige said before introducing new footage for Secret Invasion (which premieres June 21), Echo (releasing all episodes on Nov. 29) and Loki Season 2 (due out Oct. 6).
The footage had several major story reveals, including Kingpin returning in Echo, clearly surviving his supposed death in Hawkeye, and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and Owen Wilson’s Mobius interacting with Ke Huy Quan’s new character.
Not to be outdone in Lucasfilm’s first ever upfront appearance, company president Kathleen Kennedy then introduced footage for a trio of upcoming Star Wars series coming to Disney+: The Acolyte, Skeleton Crew and Ahsoka.
Pixar’s chief creative officer Pete Docter also appeared via video message, teasing the company’s first Disney+ show, Win or Lose, which comes to Disney+ with eight episodes in December.
Yet, the presentation’s biggest moment didn’t even come from any of the boldfaces names. Towards the end of the nearly two-hour event, Disney brought out 100 actors dressed as Samurai warriors in honor of FX’s upcoming title Shogun, the most expensive series in the company’s history. The Samurai went through the crowd, sword fighting before Disney shared an early look at footage from the series.
Keeping DEI in the conversation
Though the presentation mostly focused on Disney’s upcoming content, the company also gave a quick update on Disney+’s new ad tier, which Ferro said had “healthy growth in terms of subscribers and advertisers,” with new capabilities rolling out the previous week.