Commentary
Rock Hall Of Famers Ready To Roll On Disney+, Not HBO
- by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, October 26, 2023
HBO had the annual “Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony” for 28 consecutive years right up until Disney swooped in to scoop up the rights this year.
Disney’s “swoop and scoop” was announced just last month. The story came as a big surprise, since the show had been associated closely with HBO since 1995.
It was a news story that did not leak or break anywhere before the press release went out on September 28.
The coup represents another victory for streaming. This year’s telecast will represent the first time that it will premiere as a live-streaming attraction, and not on pay cable.
Plans call for this year’s show to premiere on Disney+, where it will stream live in its entirety starting at 8 p.m. Eastern on Friday, November 3. After the live show, it will continue to stream on Disney+.
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ABC will then have an abridged version, but that will not air on the network until two months later -- Monday, January 1, 2024, New Year’s Day.
ABC’s show will consist of curated “performance highlights and standout moments” from the live show, said the September 28 press release, which was issued by ABC, not Disney+.
The ABC version of the “2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony” is being tailored to fit within the parameters of network prime time. It will run for three hours starting at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Presumably, the Disney+ live version of the show from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn will run for as long as the show lasts.
This year’s inductees are: Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, George Michael (posthumously), Willie Nelson (now 90 years old), Rage Against the Machine and The Spinners.
Inductees in special categories are hip-hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc and seminal rock guitarist Link Wray (posthumously) for Musical Influence; Chaka Khan, Al Kooper and Bernie Taupin for Musical Excellence; and “Soul Train” impresario Don Cornelius, posthumous recipient of this year’s Ahmet Ertugan Award.
Presenters and performers will include Stevie Nicks, Carrie Underwood, LL Cool J and Elton John.
The first class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honorees were inducted in 1986. The famed museum in Cleveland opened in September 1995, the same year that the annual telecast aired for the first time on HBO.
HBO’s association with the annual induction show was so long that the only other such relationship similar to it is the much longer association of ABC with the Academy Awards -- 48 years and counting.
The odds do not favor any other company wresting the Oscars away from Disney anytime soon, but in today’s TV business, you never know.
Great story. Thanks, Adam. Given Zaslav's cost cutting measures, I have to wonder how much of a fight HBO put up.
The Rock'n'Roll Hall o' Fame is pretty much a joke; last year's ratings were the lowest-ever (http://www.thetvratingsguide.com/2022/11/saturday-cable-ratings-111922-rock-and.html), so it's not surprising that HBO let it go. No one cares.
Multiple artists have explained the scam that is the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame. It's a money grab. That's why you're seeing R&B bands like The Spinners and country music stars like Willie Nelson inducted. It's desperate. Robert Smith of the Cure's hilarious interview and acceptance speech at the induction event a couple years ago pretty much sum it up.
It's also comical that anyone would think Disney, stock the lowest its been in a decade and so desperate to somehow come up with the billion$ they're on the hook for to buy HULU, has got more cash to play with than Warner Bros. Discovery. Or that anybody's going to watch this thing on Disney+ (not a congruent brand for "rock and roll"), or that re-airing it on ABC on New Year's Day is anything but a wasteland drop. Everybody's hemorraghing money, nobody cares about the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, people in corporate media need to get over themselves and get a grip.
Or don't; I'm only here to warn you now or laugh at you later. Although I'm kinda laughing now.