The CW’s Rob Tuck on Sitting Out Upfronts Week and Expanding to Saturdays

The upfronts week presentations have ended, and now it’s time for the real work: the negotiations. Adweek is sitting down with each of the ad sales chiefs who presented this week to talk about their respective events and their strategies for navigating this year’s marketplace. Following NBCUniversal’s Mark Marshall, Fox’s Marianne Gambelli, Discovery’s Jon Steinlauf, Disney’s Rita Ferro, JP Colaco’s WarnerMedia, ViacomCBS’ Jo Ann Ross and Univision’s Donna Speciale, our final Q&A is with Rob Tuck, evp, national sales, The CW. The network was the only upfronts week presenter not to hold an event this year. But The CW—which will unveil its fall schedule Tuesday afternoon—still managed to make a splash with advertisers this month, announcing that it will expand its schedule to Saturday nights this fall, programming the entire week for the first time ever. Tuck spoke with Adweek about sitting out upfronts week (and whether he’ll return next year), the Saturday expansion and why The CW isn’t having the same discussions that its rivals are this year about shifting ad budgets from linear to digital. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Adweek: The CW was the only upfronts week presenter who didn’t return to the schedule this year. Why not?Tuck: We just decided that everybody in this business, including ourselves, has spent most of the past year-plus on video calls, and to do one more for the advertisers just did not make any sense. We felt at this point a better bang for our buck would be by having individual meetings and calls with each of the groups and our clients, find out really what's going on with their business and give them an update about how we're handling business. The turnout on each individual presentation, and there were hundreds; [it] was excellent. We're talking all levels, and higher levels than I think we typically would get, quite honestly, at an upfront presentation. What else did you discuss?We knew that a big question we have heard in the industry, and have heard from our clients, was that a lot of their business did not deliver in fourth quarter of 2020. If you recall, and we made sure they remembered, [when] we got to [last] May, we knew we weren't going to have a regular schedule—we knew that we were launching in January. We were very clear on what our alternative schedule was going to be in fourth quarter, and [we] estimated accordingly. And so we handled their fourth quarter business, the clients delivered on their deals, we came through with whatever we promised, we delivered. And not only that, but it actually extended into first quarter as well. Through six months of the year, clients were in great shape, stewardship-wise and things that we did for them as we went through the pandemic. So it was a report card: We've set it out there, we got the grades, and we put it right in front. And seeing is believing—clients were extremely happy with their performance, all that we were able to give to them and do for them over the year. Will we see you back next year for upfronts week, or do you think that you might be done for good?I think this made sense this year. Over these next few months, we're going to take a look and see what makes the most sense for our business [and] for our clients' business. And then we'll decide if it makes sense for us to get back into upfront week with the rest of them. We will make that decision when we need to make that decision. The CW Will Expand Its Schedule to Saturday Nights in October Even without being part of upfronts week, you managed to make some recent news with the Saturday night programming announcement. Why was now the right time to do that expansion?I can't speak for Mark [Pedowitz, The CW’s chairman and CEO], but I've been here an awful long time, dating back 25, 26 years from The WB into The CW. And the goal, certainly through the CW years, was to get Saturday night and be a seven-day programming service. And we finally got it. I believe our affiliates really wanted it as well. Getting two more hours on the linear platform, which happens to be Saturday night, also gives us two more shows to put on our digital platforms for our consumer to watch. It's great anytime we can expand our footprint. We're the little guy—we don't have the other dayparts. Getting seven nights for two hours every night, I couldn't be more pleased. What are your top upfront priorities this year?We do pride ourselves on service. And it's really important that whatever promises this network makes, to our advertisers, we really want to make sure that we deliver on them, because we're small. And if you’re not taking care of your clients, it's very easy to get cut out, especially with our size, to just be removed from the buy. That's not what we want. We want to make sure that we're doing business with as many advertisers as we can. We want them to be happy so that they want to come back and do business on The CW again. I think Covid is still going to impact us a bit [for the next year], so we've got to be smart about the business we do and make sure that we can continue to deliver on the promises we make to each and every client. I know there's been a lot of conversation about networks looking for clients to shift more to digital. We've been doing it for over 10 years; that shift has happened on The CW. It had to, because our young audience went there; they're the first to adapt and to try new things. And we know the advertisers follow the eyeballs. So when it comes to The CW, because of the fact we have been selling a multi-platform network for over a decade, it's not that foreign. It just makes total sense for us. If you’re not taking care of your clients, it's very easy to get cut out, especially with our size.Rob Tuck on The CW's upfront priorities So in your early upfront conversations, you’re not grappling with that topic to the extent that a lot of your peers are?Most likely not. We get it, and I think the clients get it: In order to deliver the entire benefit of The CW audience, you’ve got to buy all platforms. So that's not necessarily a haggling point for us at all. Then what are the big topics that have been coming up in early talks so far?I think the biggest thing is the fact that some of the other networks are definitely feeling the pinch of linear. And in the conversations that we've had, we are adding a night, it's obvious that the night adds some supply on the linear platform as well as the digital platform. The questions that we're getting are … can you handle more? How much more? And can we get this advertiser, this new advertiser that's not been on The CW, to come on board? We love the new guys to come on. I would sooner have a lot more newer advertisers, numbers-wise, than get massive budgets from a select few. The more you can spread yourself out to different brands in the different categories and grow the categories—[that] has always been beneficial to our network. The CW Will Sit Out May’s Upfronts Week, Skipping an Event for the Second Year