Priyanka Chopra showcased both her comedic and musical sides Tuesday afternoon in ABC's upfront opening, when the network also elected to somewhat weirdly shoehorn in a Prince tribute.
The sentiment of throwing in a few seconds of the deceased musician's hit song "Kiss" and some purple effects was sweet, we suppose — but it totally lacked context. The moments came towards the end of Chopra dancing and lip-syncing to Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk," and there was no real bridge from one to the other.
The whole Lincoln Center event kicked off with a not-particularly-successful attempt at comedy, in which "Quantico" stars Chopra and Jake McLaughlin interrogated a bunch of other ABC talent. It was all a setup for new tagline, "It all begins with ABC."
Also Read: Jimmy Fallon Slays Advertisers With 'Hamilton' NBC Upfront Opening Number
After the pre-taped portion, Chopra danced down the audience aisles and mouthed along with an original ABC schedule-centered song. Then the Mars music took over, and the Prince thing happened, with "Black-ish" kid Miles Brown doing his best impression of the "Little Red Corvette" singer.
A little later, one of the "Goldbergs" kids tried his hand at rapping as on-screen alter-ego Big Tasty. We're not saying it was a lame opener overall, but TheWrap is pretty comfortable with the opinion that Jimmy Fallon still owns the top kickoff to a 2016 upfront. Read about that here.
As for the actual business at hand, check out ABC's 2016-2017 fall schedule here.
Read original story ABC Shoehorns Prince Tribute Into Priyanka Chopra Upfront Opening Musical Number At TheWrap
