Helena Shelton is EVP, trading and accountability at PHD, attended the upfronts and shared the experiences with MiC all week. Click here for her thoughts on the new shows from NBC and Fox, ABC and CBS.

Finally a beautiful day as we headed out for the final upfront, the CW. The CW targets 18- to 34-year-olds and the presentation reflects that. Opening the show this year was Flo Rida, the music was loud, the dancers were lean and the crowd excited, and it was only 11 a.m.  I feel obligated to add that CW is the place where all the beautiful people are.

The message from the CW was “this is a transformative year with bigger and bolder programming.” The CW had a total of five new shows, three for the fall and two mid-season.

Arrow stars Stephen Amell as a billionaire who comes back after he was missing for five years, like in the DC Comic series, he uses his arrow to fight crime. The clip was really good and very violent. After the shirtless scenes there is no doubt that Stephen is one of the beautiful people. If he didn’t get this series he would have made a great fireman on NBC’s Chicago Fire.

Next came Beauty and the Beast. It is exactly what you think, except a bit fresher with the Beast (Jay Ryan) becoming a beast as the result of military experiments. The beauty, played by Kristin Kruek, is a homicide dective. This one was okay, I think it’ll work but it really didn’t wow anyone around me.

The final new fall season show, Emily Owens MD, was very cute and very sweet. Emily is a doctor, but she was a high school nerd whose nickname was “pits” (yes she had sweaty pits) The basic premise is how she adjusts to her life as an adult and a doctor and why she still feels like the local geek. Kim Dougherty likened this to Ally McBeal.

Two mid-season shows were presented. The first got great applause, The Carrie Diaries. It’s the story of how 16-year-old Carrie Bradshaw got started. The role of Carrie was perfectly cast with AnnaSophia Robb. The story is set in 1984 and Carrie is struggling with the death of her mother when she gets the opportunity to go to Manhattan. The rest we all know. This one got great response from the audience and although not my taste, will likely do well.

Finally was Cult, this one is right up my alley of TV show preferences. Cult was creepy and disturbing right out of the gate. The story is about the dissaperance of Nate after he confides to his brother that Billy Grimm from a hit TV show called “Cult” is going to get him. The lines between the show and reality cross as Nate’s brother Jeff (Matt Davis) tries to find him. It was great and the audience thought so also.

And in under an hour the CW was over. The New York 2012 upfronts were over. No more TV watching in the middle of the day, no more dinners, no more drinks, no more Macy’s and sadly for me no more writing to you about my opinions. Most of the Canadian contingent was heading out to catch flights home. But not me, I was heading out for a final lunch and a final dinner!

In summary, it has been a great week with some really well-produced new programs (and some well-produced but really stupid new programs) the theme this year seems to be all around families, traditional ones, gay ones, stuck together ones, happy and sad ones.  But if we take a look we can see that most of the dramas and comedies center around some type of family dynamic.

Thanks for reading and thanks for your comments.