In the middle of the CBS Upfront ad-sales presentation in Carnegie Hall, the stage went dark. Suddenly, music rang through the venue and the lights flashed to reveal Pete Townshend of The Who, along with the rest of the band, singing "Who Are You."

The assembled ad honchos and members of the press were starstruck, and CBS executives, who had planned to announce the launch of CSI: NY with as much fanfare as possible, knew they'd hit gold.

The Who show happened only four years ago, but such elaborately staged events are now a thing of the very distant past.

While networks once maxed out their budgets on big-name entertainers and dazzled audiences with humorous skits starring top celebrities and high-ranking executives, the Upfronts—presentations in which networks pitch their new shows to advertisers before the start of the fall season—have become a more sober affair.

Starting last year, the major broadcast channels began making deliberate efforts to cut back on the length of the annual events, which could drag on for an entire afternoon. Fox's 2007 Upfront at the New York City Center kicked off with a conceit straight from its hit show 24: Fox pledged to present all their new shows within the confines of one hour, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The trend toward short-and-sweet Upfronts will continue next week when the 2008 version takes place. Indeed, with broadcasters still recovering from the writers' strike and all-time ratings lows for some of their biggest shows, the mood will be more austere than ever.

For example, all the major networks (except Fox) have canceled their traditional post-Upfront parties, the once-ubiquitous schmooze fests where deals could be made and contracts signed over cocktails.

The networks have also all but eliminated the news media from the presentation, substituting webcasts and conference-call briefings. The goal is to de-emphasize the importance of this once-seminal week.

Upfronts certainly aren't the make-or-break events they were as recently as just a few years ago. The reason: The internet has opened up so many options for advertisers.

NBC, for instance, announced a 52-week schedule in early April to reporters, but says that its "spotlight event," scheduled for next Monday, is merely a chance to introduce advertisers to the online and mobile ad forums that NBC will make available to them.