Seth Meyers told the thousands who had packed Radio City Music Hall for NBCUniversal’s presentation, at the Upfronts, “What a historic room to be able to tell people you got Covid in.”
The NBCUniversal upfront, which kicked off proceedings at Radio City Music Hall with elaborate production numbers involving dozens of performers, was a largely mask-free affairs
Ten days later, Covid cases were sweeping through the ranks of those who attended the marathon of events in New York. Top-level executives at virtually all of the major networks and studios were impacted, along with support staff that worked on the presentations as well as media buyers and reporters who attended the string of events.
It is likely the largest Covid superspreader event in the senior ranks of the TV industry since the start of the pandemic.
The majority of attendees did not wear masks most of the time. None of the non-affiliated guests were required to take a Covid test throughout the week. Vax cards were mandated at all venues. On May 16, 2022 New York City health officials strongly recommended that people wear masks when they were in densely populated indoor spaces. But they didn’t go as far as mandating this, and for the next couple of days, there were not a lot of masks seen at the events targeting ad buyers.
So inviting senior studio executives, talent and ad buyers was a great way to spread the virus. How might you infect as many of the worlds billionaires as possible? You invite them to Davos, Sweden for the World Economic Forum. Davos returned to an in-person meeting format this year. Videos I saw showed mask less crowds huddled together gleefully spreading deals and the virus. They might be rich but that doesn’t mean they are smart.