{"id":19559,"date":"2016-05-16T14:09:50","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T19:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=19559"},"modified":"2016-05-16T14:09:50","modified_gmt":"2016-05-16T19:09:50","slug":"cena-bellas-appear-nbcu-upfront-nyc-wwe-make-splash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/05\/16\/cena-bellas-appear-nbcu-upfront-nyc-wwe-make-splash\/","title":{"rendered":"Cena &#038; Bellas appear at NBCU Upfront in NYC, but did WWE make a splash?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2410894559\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>WWE programming\u00a0is anchoring NBC Universal&#8217;s cable TV programming being live and weekly around the year. However, WWE&#8217;s presence at the NBCU Upfronts presentation Monday in New York City did not seem to make much of a splash.<\/p>\n<p>It captures how far WWE has to go in order to be taken seriously as a part of NBCU&#8217;s &#8220;mainstream appeal&#8221; to media buyers and be taken seriously by publications covering the Upfronts.<\/p>\n<p>John Cena, who has taken an expanded role on NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Today&#8221; Show while injured this year, was the key figure representing WWE programming at the two-hour event\u00a0that combined all of NBCU&#8217;s programming in one presentation\u00a0for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>The Bella Twins (Brie &amp; Nikki) were also on-hand to represent E!&#8217;s &#8220;Total Divas&#8221; and spin-off &#8220;Total Bellas&#8221; programming.<\/p>\n<p>However, the event was dominated by NBC programming, executives dismissing TV ratings and talking about audience engagement, and a parade of cameos turning the event into an entertainment spectacle.<\/p>\n<p>Deadline.com did not mention Cena in their coverage, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.broadcastingcable.com\/blog\/currency\/upfront-notebook-nbcu-pours-it-two-hours\/156528\" target=\"_blank\">Broadcasting &amp; Cable<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/hollywoodlife.com\/2016\/05\/16\/watch-nbcuniversal-upfront-red-carpet-2016-live-stream-video\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hollywood Life<\/a> mentioned Cena in passing as one of the stars appearing at the event, and E! News <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eonline.com\/photos\/18836\/nbcuniversal-upfront-2016-red-carpet-arrivals\/700464\" target=\"_blank\">merely highlighted Cena and the Bellas on the red carpet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Although Raw, Smackdown, and Bellas-related programming is a significant part of USA Network, the Upfront captured that WWE is swimming in a big\u00a0NBCU pond once moving outside of the\u00a0cable TV bubble.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1349251094\"><div id=\"pwtor-577523976\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>WWE programming\u00a0is anchoring NBC Universal&#8217;s cable TV programming being live and weekly around the year. However, WWE&#8217;s presence at the NBCU Upfronts presentation Monday in New York City did not seem to make much of <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/05\/16\/cena-bellas-appear-nbcu-upfront-nyc-wwe-make-splash\/\" title=\"Cena &#038; Bellas appear at NBCU Upfront in NYC, but did WWE make a splash?\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[135,1404,136,116,758,767,974,96,72,2741,134,113,71],"class_list":["post-19559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_women","category-news_wwe","tag-bella-twins","tag-brie-bella","tag-e","tag-john-cena","tag-nbc-universal","tag-nbcu","tag-nikki-bella","tag-raw","tag-smackdown","tag-total-bellas","tag-total-divas","tag-usa-network","tag-wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2015\/11\/CenaPhotoWK_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19560,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19559\/revisions\/19560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}