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A Twitter's Eye View of ABC's Upfront Presentation

By Catharine Taylor

Updated on: May 19, 2009 / 4:54 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

Want to find a good way to waste some time gather important insight into the fall TV season? Go to Twitter Search and type in the hashtag #upfronts. From doing this, I've learned the following about the ABC upfront presentation, which is going on as I type (Twitter account names in parentheses where needed):

That Jimmy Kimmel is doing stand-up at the presentation, telling the audience: "Everything you're going to hear this week is bull****." (@HitFixDaniel)
That ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson actually lived up to that declaration, saying: "ABC has the shows that make people feel and feel passionately." (@HitFixDaniel)
That there's a rumor that "My Name Is Earl," which was cancelled by NBC, will move to either ABC or Fox . (@coffeewithian)
That four or five people have re-tweeted this insight from @tvbarn: "Thanks to wifi, I can be the first to say Kelsey Grammer's new show sucks!"
That ABC is screening an entire episode of the sitcom "Modern Family" for the audience.

Actually, watching the Twitter stream of a live event is one of the best ways to begin to understand it, and the best part is, you can do it without even joining! If, by the time you read this, the ABC presentation is over, tune into #upfronts tomorrow for the final broadcast network upfront presentation, from BNET Media's corporate overlord, CBS.

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