Disney's Upfront Went Hard on Sports — With an Off-Key Manning Brothers Musical — but Hardly Mentioned ABC
The Mouse House highlighted its sports programming more than anything else during its annual presentation to ad buyers Tuesday in New York City, parading the Mannings and several other star athletes in front of ad buyers and even connecting scripted Disney content back to what happens on the court and field.
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The presentation opened with a marching band performance that lasted for more than five minutes, made up of musicians from Jackson State and Delaware State plus a gameday-ready Mickey Mouse as drum major. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley were next to take the stage at New York's Javits Center, with Mahomes praising the 'boldly original, fiercely competitive, undoubtedly magical' storytelling that makes Disney 'the ultimate M.V.P.' before introducing Iger.
And though Iger made mention of Disney's newly announced theme park in Abu Dhabi and generally shouted out the company's work across entertainment and news, he was most specific in his excitement for sports programming — making a humble brag about the amount of time he's spent with the footballers and thanking them for the highlights they bring to ESPN before emphasizing that Disney is home to 'the most live sports hours in the industry' across its many platforms.
The Mannings were the next big piece of the show. After a sizzle reel of various Disney programs cued up by Iger, Eli said he only had 'one note' for the company: 'Not enough Mannings.' He and Peyton then presented all of the company's 'M.V.P. IP' through song. With backup dancers and botched high notes galore, they suggested that they take over the top billing positions in ABC's 'High Potential,' 'Abbott Elementary' and 'Good Morning America' plus Hulu's 'Paradise' and 'Only Murders in the Building.'
At five minutes, the bit overstayed its welcome, but they get points for their puns: They proposed replacing Kaitlin Olson's 'High Potential' cleaning lady with a 'cleaning Manning,' and renaming the other shows to 'Abbott Eli Manning-tary,' 'Good Manning America,' 'Pey-radise' and 'Only Mannings in the Building.'
As per usual, groupings of high-profile cast members from across the Disney portfolio came out to talk about their shows and cue up footage. Among them were Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short from 'Only Murders in the Building'; Jeremy Allen-White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach from 'The Bear' (with all three mentioning the Disney-backed films they also act in); Evan Peters, Anthony Ramos, Jeremy Pope and Ashton Kutcher from Ryan Murphy's upcoming FX horror series 'The Beauty'; and Niecy Nash-Betts, Sarah Paulson, Glenn Close and Teyana Taylor from Hulu's upcoming legal drama (another Murphy show) 'All's Fair,' with series lead Kim Kardashian introducing them in a pre-recorded video.
The scripted shows that got the most extensive segments were all from major Disney franchises. Following a creepy intro by Darth Vader, Diego Luna and Hayden Christensen noted that this year is the 20th anniversary of 'Revenge of the Sith' and remarked on the ubiquity of Star Wars fans worldwide — while emphasizing that the entirety of the franchise streams on Disney+, including the 'Andor' Season 2 finale which would debut just hours after the upfront.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe was the subject of the presentation's biggest news — that Krysten Ritter will reprise the role of Jessica Jones in 'Daredevil: Born Again' Season 2 — complete with Ritter and series lead Charlie Cox in person, followed by Sir Ben Kingsley, who spoke about his new MCU show 'Wonder Man.' That led into the most exciting footage of the day, a trailer for 'Alien: Earth' presented by stars Timothy Olyphant, Sydney Chandler and Babou Ceesay.
And as the industry leader in family programming, Disney also paired Ginnifer Goodwin with Auliʻi Cravalho to shout out the upcoming theatrical releases of 'Zootopia 2' and 'Moana 2,' while also mentioning the massive Disney+ viewership achieved by the original films in both of those series.
Still, everything came back to sports. Disney's global advertising president Rita Ferro opened her spiel by celebrating the New York Knicks' win the night before, and though her focus was ad infrastructure across the Disney portfolio, ESPN was the only brand she mentioned specifically. Even during a presentation from Ryan Seacrest, best known for hosting competitions and holiday programs, sports made up half of the live events broadcasts that were called out.
Other segments were led by NBA commentator Stephen A. Smith, who spoke about ESPN's new streaming app; football and basketball analysts Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike and Andraya Carter, who announced new women-led sports commentary show 'Vibe Check'; University of Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian and ESPN reporter Laura Rutledge, who spoke about ABC and ESPN's college football offerings; and ESPN anchor Joe Buck and former quarterback and current ABC/ESPN anchor Troy Aikman plus Barkley and Eagles center Jason Kelsce, who focused on pro football.
When Glen Powell appeared to discuss his upcoming Hulu football comedy 'Chad Powers,' he was introduced by the Mannings, who executive produce the series. They returned to the stage flanked by the marching band from the intro — this time led by Goofy instead of Mickey.
Throughout Disney's presentation, the most-used joke subject was Bill Belichik, most notably including Buck saying that the infamous football coach would soon come out to sing 'Endless Love' with his much younger girlfriend Jordon Hudson. (Pope Leo XIV came in second place for most mentions, with Martin Short saying he'd been told that there would be white smoke for each Disney show that was renewed and black smoke for the cancellations.)
As it further ramps up on sports content and continues to build out its several scripted franchises, Disney seems less invested in its broadcast television arm than ever.
ABC, the brand that would have dominated Disney's upfront in a previous era, was scarcely mentioned at the Javits Center. ABC talent Olson, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Robin Roberts did make brief comedic cameos to rebut the Mannings during their musical number, and Roberts reappeared later alongside David Muir to tout the success of 'Good Morning America' and ABC News. But none of ABC's primetime programming got its own segment, not even the network's only new show for the 2025-2026 season: '9-1-1: Nashville.' Despite Ryan Murphy-created shows on multiple other platforms receiving a spotlight throughout the presentation, the new '9-1-1' didn't come up until Jimmy Kimmel's closing monologue, and he didn't mention it by name — or favorably.
'At ABC, we ordered one new show, and it's a spinoff of an old show, which really begs the question: What are we doing here?' said the 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' host, who was the only ABC talent to take the stage for more than a minute. 'We risked our lives flying into Newark for this? I mean, if you went to a restaurant and the waiter said, 'Our special tonight is last year's fish,' would you eat it? No, you would not. Our fish is not fresh. But you know what we do have: Season grandmotherfucking 2 of 'The Golden Bachelor.' Say what you will about ABC — we are still the only network where you can see Pop Pop get a squeezer in a hot tub. 'The Golden Bachelor' and Season 34 of 'Dancing with the Stars.' At ABC, we know what young people want to see, and it's not us.'
Of course, those jokes were safe enough to make in front of ad buyers, given that the rest of the presentation focused on the only kind of broadcast programming that hasn't lost viewers in the streaming era: sports. And that won't change anytime soon — unless the Mannings find someone to greenlight the musical comedy series they seem to be dreaming up.
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