The TV upfronts—when networks present their new fall lineups, in hopes that advertisers will love it and spend millions—have started, and if it's not a monkey on the shoulder of a former Hell's Kitchen rocker-turned-"Uncle Andy" (go to the 50-second mark) and seeing Britney Spears as a X-Factor judge (3-minute mark), then it's all about the lavish parties and the food the networks will provide to make sure advertisers are happy and full enough to let their guards down and open their media spending wallets.
According to the NY Times, NBC is having "appetizers and drinks at the expensive Italian restaurant Del Posto," while CBS's party in "a tent behind Lincoln Center would have an 'elegant motif' and that the catering would feature pigs in a blanket, miniature cupcakes and sliders."
But the prize might go to Fox: "Fox expects 2,300 guests to crowd under a tent featuring midcentury modern décor and set up over Central Park’s Wollman Rink. Tomiko Iwata, Fox’s senior vice president of creative services, said her team had spent over eight months planning the party, including a citywide doughnut tasting test. (They settled on using Dough in Brooklyn.)" It ain't a party without artisanal doughnuts!
