At the 2014 Television Critics
Association press tour, held on January 13th, Fox Chairman Kevin
Reilly stated that “We are going to be bypassing pilot season,” and accompanied
the declaration with a sign that read “R.I.P. Fox Pilot Season 1986-2013”
(Andreeva). It seems like a bold and definitive move for the broadcasting
network, one that if it works could yield great results for the company. Pilot
season is the time of the year around spring when networks call for hundreds of
pitches for new shows and then slowly cull the pitches down to less than a
hundred scripts, then about 20 pilot episodes. Depending on how well the pilot
episodes end up, some of the pilots may lead to a short series order, and then
depending on how well they are received, a full season. It’s a massive and complex
process that sees more failures than successes. All those failures add up. Noah
Hawley, the experienced writer and producer for Fox’s Bones and the upcoming FX series Fargo, stated that “If you do the math, each network wastes about
$100 million a year between pilots they shot but didn't go forward on and
series they [hastily] picked up and canceled after 10 episodes" (Rose).
For an industry that values and relies on long lasting series, for ratings and
for syndication, the current system seems like a waste of money, talent, and
time.
Cable networks have already
outpaced their broadcast competitors in that respect, making it common to
develop and release news series year round and with more patience, resulting in
a better hit to miss ratio for failed pilots and picked up series. Premium
channels like Netflix and HBO all allow new pilots to air outside the
traditional pilot season time span. Fox’s new openness to looking at the
programming cycle as a year round event rather than a seasonal one releases a
lot of the time constraint and talent constraint that previously plagued the pilot
season. Due to every network operating on the same schedule in years past,
networks would fight over the actors, writers, and producers that create the
series, and would often rush the development process. Reilly pointed to FX’s Sons of Anarchy as an example of a big
hit for the cable company that would more than likely would have been passed on
had it been produced for the broadcast network. Between the pilot episode and
the series order the lead actor was recast and much of the pilot episode reshot,
things that the pilot season restraint doesn’t allow time for (Andreeva). By
restructuring their development cycle Fox has the potential to increase the
quality of their programming while cutting their losses.
That’s the hope, anyway. This abandonment
of the pilot season model also comes with its own set of downsides. The new
model forces executives in the company to limit their reach, or as Reilly said
at the TCA press conference “Instead of making 10 pilots hoping to get one
series on the air, I’d like to make it more 1-to-1 ratio” (Andreeva). Since Fox
will be focusing more of its time and money on fewer shows it raises the pressure
on these shows to be bigger hits, or rather raises the pressure on the
executives of the company to only gamble on near guaranteed successes. Recent
big hits like NBC’s ratings monster The Blacklist
would likely have been passed on if not for the pilot season, which created the
right environment to take a risk on undiscovered talent, like the series
creator Jon Bokenkamp. That’s a risk
that paid off, with the show drawing 17 million viewers in 2013 (Ryan). NBC
Chairman Robert Greenblatt even admitted that “It probably would never have
seen the air had we not made a pilot” (Rose). Although Reilly insists that they
are ending pilot season and not pilot episode, the real question is whether the
pilot would even have been produced if the focus was on more experienced series
creators. With less series in development, that also means that any series that
make it into development and do happen to fail anyway will be a bigger blow to the
bottom line.
Television no doubt has changed
dramatically in the even the past few years. Cable and premium channels are
pushing the industry to experiment with many new methods of distribution and
development, and the end of the pilot season seems like the next big trend. A
lot rides on how the shift turns out for Fox, if it fails then broadcast networks
will likely not take the risk again for a while, but if the new cycle is
successful it could drastically alter the way in which new shows are created
and brought to air. We’ll have to wait until next season to find out.
Works Cited
Andreeva, Nellie. "Fox’s Abolishment
Of Pilot Season: Practical Guide To How Will It Work." Deadline.com. Deadline, 13 Jan. 2014. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
<http://www.deadline.com/2014/01/fox-no-pilot-season-how-will-it-work/>.
Andreeva, Nellie.
"TCA: Fox’s Kevin Reilly Declares His Network Is Abandoning Pilot
Season." Deadline.com. Deadline, 13 Jan. 2014. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
<http://www.deadline.com/2014/01/tca-foxs-kevin-reilly-declares-network-is-abandoning-pilot-season/>.
Rose, Lacey.
"Kevin Reilly's War on TV Pilot Season: Will Other Networks Follow Fox?
(Analysis)." The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Jan. 2014.
Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
<http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/foxs-kevin-reillys-war-tv-673006>.
Ryan, Joal. "Yahoo TV." Yahoo
TV. Yahoo, 17 Dec. 2013. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. <http://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/the-year-s-tv-ratings-winners---losers-044159333.html>.
This could be an upward trend in how the broadcast networks choose their content. It is true that during the pilot season there are a lot of misses and what may be looked over by the broadcast networks the cable networks have had some huge hits, such as Sons of Anarchy on FX. Kevin Reilly, FOX’s entertainment chief, said, “The cable networks roll things out and use all their resources to focus on a couple of shows at a time, and we do these mass releases at once. It’s a bit, I think, beyond its usefulness…It doesn’t mean the business is broken, it just means it’s time to break from the pack” (Malloy). What Reilly is saying is that he believes it will be better for FOX to choose its content better and save a lot of money in production costs instead of shelling out millions of dollars to film and cast pilots of shows that will never air again. They are attempting to use a “year-round approach to programming much like the cable networks have been doing. For instance, instead of airing 20+ episodes of 24, they will be airing only 12 (Malloy). By spreading the series out throughout the year they are likely to draw more viewers and advertisers.
ReplyDeleteTelevision is not the same as it was a decade ago or even five years ago. Streaming sites like Hulu and Netflix have made your favorite shows accessible from almost anywhere. Cable Networks have had huge hits like Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, and American Horror Story. HBO has had success with Game of Thrones and Starz’s new series Black Sails looks like it could become a hit. “The grid is so dilled with so many shows year-round that networks can no longer essentially take summers off” (Malloy). With so much to compete with it will be smart to make sure that as a network, you have a better hit-to-miss ratio. Instead of having a pilot season, choose shows that have a chance to be very popular. If you hit on 2 out of 3 shows, you are already doing better than you are now. Not to mention that almost everybody owns a DVR these days. DVR’ing was up “an impressive 16%” from last year and “23% among viewers ages 50+”, suggesting that they have learned how to record their favorite shows (de Moraes). With this in mind, a few new “hit shows” on one network could change the aspect of their ratings and how much money they bring in. Especially with the money they would be saving not making a bunch of pilot episodes that will never make another episode. All in all, this is probably a good idea for FOX to go through with. If it is successful, do not be surprised if other broadcast networks follow suit. If they do, we may no longer have the pilot season that some people thoroughly enjoy. Without it the crowded “grid” of television will have even more content to choose from.
WORKS CITED
De Moraes, Lisa. "Broadcasters Ambushed By Hysteria Around ‘Breaking Bad’ Finale." Deadline. 30 Sept. 2013. Web.
Malloy. Tim. "Battered Networks Blow Up Traditional TV Schedule to Take on Cable, Streaming Rivals." The Wrap. 14 May 2013. Web.