The 2024 Fox upfront presentation featured an appearance by Jamie Foxx in one of his first public appearances since his health crisis last year.
Foxx took to the stage and did his best to crack up the crowd of advertisers, a tall order considering the bar had yet to open. He gave it his all though, showcasing his trademark wit and charisma, reminding the attendees “You got free alcohol after this. Let’s get f—ed up!”
The host of the Fox competition series “Beat Shazam,” Foxx not only took the chance to plug his own series but also Fox shows like “The Masked Singer,” “Animal Control,” and the MLB’s upcoming Negro Leagues tribute game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, for Fox Sports. Failing to get a satisfactory reaction from the crowd for that last programming note, Foxx asked the crowd, “Y’all won’t clap for the negroes?!”
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He also did his best to have a little fun with Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade, attempting to get Wade on his feet for a round of applause from the audience at least three times.
During Fox Sports’ time onstage, superstar quarterback Tom Brady made an appearance ahead of his debut as an onscreen NFL analyst. “Obviously there were a lot of opportunities that were presented,” Brady said, “but when I walked out of my first meeting with Fox, they reminded me so much of the amazing teammates that I had over a long period of time.”
Brady closed the show with a nice bit in which he “looked at the film” from earlier in the show, highlighting the strategic benefits of advertising with Fox before he, Michael Strahan, and Ramsay shouted “Let’s f—ing go!” to start the afterparty.
Fox’s ad supported streaming service Tubi was also heavily featured, with Lauren Graham taking the stage to talk about her upcoming Tubi series “The Z-Suite.” Graham then introduced the stars of the upcoming Tubi original movie “The QB Bad Boy and Me.” The prominent presentation of the movie was interesting, as NBCUniversal had earlier also taken the chance during their upfront to hype their upcoming theatrical release “Wicked,” marking the second movie to get a push during the TV-focused upfronts.
Fox clearly learned from last year’s strike-impacted presentation, with Gordon Ramsay reminding the crowd that they were largely made to stand last year with limited seating, while this year everyone was able to sit. “I told you I’d get you some f—ing chairs!” Ramsay said.
The Fox News portion was also much better this year. Instead of relying on painfully stiff banter between the hosts of “The Five,” they instead brought out Benjamin Hall, a Fox News correspondent who was seriously injured while reporting on the war in Ukraine in 2022. Hall received a standing ovation from the crowd before handing things off to anchors Brett Baier and Dana Perino, who previewed Fox’s 2024 election coverage.
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One would also not be remiss to think that Fox had hardly any scripted shows on its broadcast slate. The new fall drama “Rescue: Hi Surf” and the mideason medical drama “Doc” got trailers during the presentation, but aside from appearances by stars like Jon Hamm, Joel McHale, Rob Lowe, and Ken Jeong, very few Fox scripted shows got the spotlight.
