Helena Shelton is EVP/director of trading at Toronto-based MediaCom.

While everyone in New York is talking about tearing down Yankee Stadium, we were wondering if the Fox upfront at City Center would deliver a home run. And it pretty much did. This one had assigned seating, very civilized, but muffled sound in our section made it difficult to understand what they were saying.

The show began with the big Fox stars on the stage, from 24‘s Kiefer Sutherland to John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted. The presentation was pretty positive even without words like ‘engagement.’ They told us TV sports is ‘a robust weapon, drawing viewers.’

One we hadn’t heard all week, but which makes sense, is, ‘The consumer comes first’ on Fox. All of this from what began as the upstart network — now apparently number one with the 18-49 set.

Fox promised to continue to be an innovator. The two new shows it is launching will run as what they refer to as ‘remote-free TV.’ These will air with only five commercial minutes, half the current norm, and with non-standard cluster sizes. The remote-free TV shows include Fringe from J.J. Abrams (Lost), who now brings us a sci-fi drama about an FBI agent, a scientist and his genius son, who investigate mysterious events such as genetic mutation. Fringe seems to be their biggie; they really talked it up.

Then there was Dollhouse, about five people who have their personalities and memories erased and are later reprogrammed as other people, starring Eliza Dushku from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Fox presented some mid-season offerings and ideas for next year that were not complete, including a spinoff of Family Guy called The Cleveland Show and Sit Down Shut Up, both animated comedies. Do Not Disturb, meanwhile, is about hired help at a hip New York hotel, starring Jerry O’Connell.

Fox’s contribution to this year’s reality offerings is Secret Millionaire, about rich guys who go undercover as poor guys and give away money. Finally, Courtroom K, a legal drama from the producers of House, pretty much sums up what was shown.

As the clock was hitting the magical one-hour mark and everyone was getting ready to race for the bar, Sutherland came back to tell us that 24 would launch with a two-hour premiere in November, and that the season would begin in January. He also told us that 24 is the only carbon-neutral show produced. (I’m guessing he meant ‘in the world.’)

The big finale featured dancers from So You Think You Can Dance in a performance almost as good as what the CTV media stars did last year. On the way out, we saw 12 cows from the largest dairy farm in Jersey hanging around in midtown Manhattan. Their handlers were giving out Fringe promo cards that read, ‘Genetically, humans and cows are separated by only a couple of lines of DNA.’ I have to tell you, cows in New York get everyone’s attention.

The party was in Central Park, but this writer decided to opt out for another type of attraction. In a week or so we’ll see what the Canadians come back with from their L.A. program shopping trip.

From Media in Canada