LOWDOWN ON THE UPFRONT: Disney Channel Explains How It Finds ‘Next Big Thing’
Intimate Upfront Presentation Features 15-Year-Old Star Demi Lovato
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 4/9/2008 12:20:00 PM
New York—Disney Channel took a different approach to its upfront Tuesday, and was getting ready to improvise when its talent, 15-year-old Demi Lovato, almost didn’t make the presentation.
Lovato, who is a featured player in two new Disney Channel movies—Camp Rock and Princess Protection Program—was supposed to fly in from Puerto Rico to Manhattan for the network’s press upfront Tuesday. But her original flight in the morning was cancelled.
Disney Channel officials were scurrying around trying fill in for her absence, with a film clip. But as it turned out, Lovato finally did get a flight and managed to make it to the event at 3:30 p.m., just a half hour before it was set to start.
Disney held its “The Next Big Thing” presentation, where Lovato performed, in a very intimate setting, at the Legacy Recording Studios in Midtown.
Lovato and other Disney executives are featured in this upfront photo gallery.
Rather than just delivering an ad-sales pitch, Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channels Worldwide, tried to explain how the network scouts out raw talent—stars like Hilary Duff, Miley Cyrus (a.ka. Hannah Montana) and the Jonas Brothers—and sometimes develops shows around them.
In fact, Marsh showed audition tapes of Cyrus, the New Jersey-bred Jonas boys and Zac Efron, star of High School Musical, who all looked a little gangly and nerdy.
Disney Channel isn’t looking for polished young actors and actresses, but rather kids who love to perform and who are relatable, accessible, and exude confidence, charm and charisma, according to Marsh.
