Warner Bros. Discovery Gives Upfront HBO Max Prestige

The 2025 Warner Bros. Discovery upfront played out much like prestige programming: Dense, perhaps a bit long-winded, but ultimately good for business.

From the opening montage to the closing comments and quick “Go Knicks” from WBD ad sales leaders Ryan Gould and Robert “Bobby” Voltaggio, WBD spent nearly two hours inside The Theater at Madison Square Garden telling ad buyers how it was polishing its content lineup and making it easier for those assembled to buy into it. 

“Our industry is starting to feel like an episode of Fixer Upper,” Voltaggio said. “The house we built together worked beautifully for so long, but we’ve outgrown it. It just doesn’t meet our needs anymore. The house still has a strong foundation and great bones, but it’s time to renovate.”

White Lotus stars Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan, and Leslie Bibb helped launch the proceedings and made the first of many references to just how many Four Seasons stays and caftans (but not blenders) the series was able to sell. A remotely located Conan O’Brien followed the introduction of new linear demographic-based ad sales tool DemoDirect with a multimedia explanation of the NEO full-portfolio ad sales platform that devolved into him destroying whole sets of explanatory charts.

But the fun started after some brief Peacemaker-related banter between Tim Meadows and John Cena, as WBD’s chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content, Casey Bloys, reiterated what WBD revealed hours earlier: The HBO Max brand was returning to its streaming service, and bringing a prestige focus with it.

“Yes, I know you’re all shocked,” Bloys said. “But the good news is I have a drawer full of stationery from the last time around, so I’m all set.”

The service not only wants to keep producing high-quality shows like White Lotus, The Last of Us, and Hacks, but is looking to create memorable shows and movies that connect across generations and fit into its WBD Storyverse platform that turns IP into partner content.

Much as The White Lotus has been linked with the Four Seasons, Hacks with BMW, and The Last of Us with Corona, WBD has used its storyverse to connect legacy films like When Harry Met Sally with Hellmann’s and The Matrix with Frito-Lay—seeing greater opportunity for expansion with future movies and programming.

“Streaming has become a lot like fast fashion: People are saying, ‘I’d rather have one great sweater than five that fall apart,’” said Shauna Spenley, WBD’s global chief marketer of direct-to-consumer. “The desire for cheap, long-form, episodic volume is waning.”

WBD saw a similar opportunity for a prestige makeover within its series of networks, announcing that the first season of HBO’s The Pitt—whose star Noah Wylie discussed its success—would air on WBD network TNT later this year. The Food Network, meanwhile, announced its connection with Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer on a cooking show—Family Recipe Showdown—celebrating her New Orleans roots. 

#ThePitt star Noah Wyle takes the upfront stage. WBD announced the show will air on its U.S. networks like TNT soon. pic.twitter.com/xbMGYSC2VM

— Saleah Blancaflor (@saleyley) May 14, 2025

While WBD’s networks are still a world in which Guy Fieri can build his own backlot Flavortown for a new cooking show and Tom Bergeron has to send trained dancers underwater for Shark Week’s sounds-like-a-parody Dancing With Sharks, they’re just one corner of WBD slowly feeling the HBO influence.

According to Channing Dungey, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Television Group and the US networks, the company is focusing on three principles, including creating culture-shaping shows and deepening its collaboration with HBO Max.

“Our third key principle is to enhance and extend our premium brands like Food Network, HGTV, and Discovery,” Dungey said, presenting activations like Adult Swim’s presence at San Diego Comic-Con, private dining events and cooking classes in Food Network kitchens, exclusive access at the TCM Film Festival, and private parties in the HGTV Dream Home or Smart Home.

During CNN’s presentation, actor Tony Shalhoub followed in the footsteps of his former Big Night costar Stanley Tucci and embarked on a CNN show in which he travels the world looking for its best bread. As TNT Sports chairman and CEO Luis Silberwasser acknowledged his department’s changing portfolio within the last year—notably losing rights to NBA game coverage—he and Inside the NBA co-host Adam Lefkoe walked buyers through a new top-shelf roster. 

The overhauled TNT Sports lineup included Big 12 and Big East college sports with former NFL star Champ Bailey and basketball Hall of Famer Grant Hill; the French Open at Roland-Garros with former Grand Slam winner Sloan Stephens; the Unrivaled women’s basketball league and Bleacher Report’s women’s sports coverage with WNBA champion and gold medalist Candace Parker; and NHL Stanley Cup Finals coverage with former New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.

Shaq joins DC Studios co-CEOs Peter Safran and James Gunn to introduce the new #Superman trailer pic.twitter.com/3W3IfMOtib

— Saleah Blancaflor (@saleyley) May 14, 2025

There were some reminders that WBD was behind the Ryan Coogler hit film Sinners and would be bringing audiences Paul Thomas Anderson’s newest movie, One Battle After Another. But a spin through the DC Universe with Superman director James Gunn for a look at not only his summer blockbuster, but future Green Lantern and Supergirl projects—and a stilted exchange with Superman-logo-tattooed Inside the NBA host Shaquille O’Neal—suggests there’s still room in WBD’s HBO Max 2.0 future for supersized content.

“We see this as an opportunity to collectively rethink, reimagine, and reinvent our industry and come out even stronger than ever together,” Gould said.