The 2025 Upfronts have pretty much come and gone, and those once highly anticipated presentations have brought very little of interest for sci fi fans. This is a time when the broadcast networks unveil their schedules for the coming season to their sponsors, and the Upfronts used to come with a lot of pomp and circumstance. But as viewership continues to decline for the linear networks, there has been less focus on these presentations over the last few years. CBS and The CW have bowed out altogether, preferring direct meetings with their sponsors, and ABC is now part of Disney’s announcements while NBC is folded into the overall NBCUniversal presentation (with no news coming from Syfy this year). Netflix and Amazon have jumped in over the past couple of years, and Warner Bros. Discovery uses this time to unveil what is coming from HBO and other venues under its umbrella.
As for the broadcast networks, which got the Upfronts started many years ago and used to focus much of their energy on this time of year, there is next to no news of interest for sci fi fans. There are currently only two genre entries airing on those channels–Ghosts on CBS and Krapopolis on Fox–and both had already been renewed prior to the Upfronts. And there are no new shows of interest for sci fi fans on the schedules of the Big Four networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC). The CW has not announced its slate yet, but since they are focused mostly on inexpensive acquisitions these days, it is unlikely that they will be greenlighting any new genre entries. (You can see the full Fall schedule for the broadcast networks at this link.)
Amazon had a few announcements of interest at its Upfront, but mostly involving renewal announcements and shows already in the works. Fallout received an early Season 3 renewal, but that was pretty much expected. And they released a teaser for the long-in-the-works Spider-Noir which stars Nicholas Cage. But nothing new in the way of sci fi TV was announced by that streamer.
Netflix teased the upcoming final season of Stranger Things (due out later this year) at their Upfront presentation, as well as the second season of Wednesday (premieres August 6th). But no new genre entries were announced by the streamer and the once-vaunted The Sandman was completely ignored now that it is coming to an end with its second season (which premieres July 3rd).
Disney had the most of interest for sci fi fans at their Upfront, but that was still rather lacking. They gave a premiere date of August 12th for the long-anticipated Alien: Earth. They confirmed that Kristin Ritter will be reprising her role as Jessica Jones in the upcoming second season of Daredevil: Born Again. They released a trailer for Ironheart which is scheduled to premiere June 24th (you can see that at this link). And there was a mention of Wonder Man which is due out later this year. But no new shows were announced–for Disney+ or Hulu–and there were no renewals.
As for Warner Bros. Discovery, their Upfront was mostly a dud for sci fi fans. We learned that Game of Thrones prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will get delayed to 2026 and that Max will be renamed to HBO Max. No new development was announced and there is no word on whether Harley Quinn will be returning for another season.
So apart from a few updates, Upfront week proved to be rather anti-climatic. This time of year used to bring a slew of renewal and cancellation announcements along with pickups for new shows, but not so much in 2025. And that is in line with the trend we have been seeing as Fall 2025 is on track to have the fewest premieres of sci fi and fantasy shows in quite a while. And there is no strike or pandemic to blame this time around.
I will continue to watch for updates and announcements and should have a Fall preview schedule put together in the coming weeks. But don’t expect it to have too many selections as post-Peak TV sees a continued decline of genre entries along with scripted programming in general.
