+. The new subscription service will be jockeying for viewers with incumbents like Netflix and new entrants like Disney+ and HBO Max .to don a jacket and tie to make a rare foray onto the red carpet . Eddy Cue, SVP of Internet Software and Services, and Apple’s TV co-heads Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, also made the scene.
Cook did not take the microphone inside the hall, leaving the speaking to others. “Jennifer and Reese, before anybody believed in us, before we started anything, before we knew what we were going to call it, they believed in Apple,” Cue said before the show’s first two episodes unspooled. Erlicht recounted a trek two years ago to CAA’s headquarters with Van Amburg to hear a pitch for the show. It was just the third day on the job for the former Sony executives, Erlicht said, so even once they decided to move quickly to buy the show, the logistics of securing an offer letter and payment were mystifying. Even once the lay of their new corporate land was more clear, three to four months of negotiations ensued, he said.
The crowd greeted the show warmly, chuckling during a monologue by Billy Crudup’s corporate entertainment overlord character, who offers a bleak assessment of traditional TV’s prospects. “We’re all going to get bought out by Big Tech,” he grouses. Along with an opening flurry of scenes prominently featuring iPhones during the show’s opening minutes, the night’s message was unmistakable but it went down stylishly enough.