FOX Abolishes Pilot Season

[mr awesome]

Fox’s Abolishment Of Pilot Season: Practical Guide To How Will It Work

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday January 13, 2014 @ 8:06pm PST
Tags: Fox, Kevin Reilly, Primetime Pilot Panic


COMMENTS (17)
Nellie Andreeva
Fox is switching to the cable development model. That is the takeaway from today’s announcement by Fox Chairman Kevin Reilly that the network will be bypassing pilot season this year and going forward. I sat down with Reilly to discuss how the changes will be implemented and what it means for writers, actors and agents.

Related: TCA: Kevin Reilly Declares Fox Is Abandoning Pilot Season

First, “we are abandoning pilot season, not pilots,” Reilly stressed. “Pilots still are a helpful tool, especially on the comedy side where the alchemy is fragile, and you really Kevin Reilly 1need the casting to inform your decision on the project.” But going forward, “we will be ordering pilots geared towards series,” he said. That means picking up fewer pilots, which is the cable model. “Instead of making 10 pilots hoping to get one series on the air, I’d like to make it more 1-to-1 ratio,” Reilly said. That means fewer pilot roles for actors but a better chance for those who get pilots to get on the air. The switch also means likely buying fewer scripts, Reilly said.

Related: Kevin Reilly Stands Up For Broadcast Vs. Cable, Defends New Comedy ‘Dads’, Reflects On Mike Darnell’s Departure

This will be a transitional year as Fox has a stockpile of scripts, some of them with big commitments. “There will be a few more drama pilots ordered in the next month or so, with another half dozen pushed forward for the next cycle with further investment,” Reilly said. That involves a pilot order plus backup scripts and/or funds for a writing staff, or, in some cases, just extra scripts and a bible for a straight-to-series consideration. On the comedy side, “we’ll have a leaner slate, we will order a few more pilots.” There is no mandate for any of those fox-tv-logo__130727010919-275x119to be ready in May for fall consideration, though, if magic strikes and a pilot comes quickly and knocks it out of the park, it could make it on the 2014-15 schedule. Expected to be on the schedule are Fox’s current pilots, drama Gotham and comedies Fatrick and Cabot College (Matt Hubbard), with Reilly expected to formalize their series orders next month. With those three, plus comedy series Mulaney and drama series Hieroglyph and Ben Affleck’s The Middle Man, there will be no much shelf space for new series anyway, especially as Reilly said he wanted to bring back most of the network’s current series and only has 15 hours of primetime versus 22 for the other major nets.

Related: 2014 Fox Pilots

Going forward, Fox will not make series pickups based on one episode, as has been the pilot season tradition. Also like cable, Fox plans to commission backup scripts and set up small writers rooms while work on the pilot is going on — as it is currently doing with The Middle Man and Gotham — to get a detailed road map for the series before proceeding with an episodic order. That is not a ploy to make creators do more for the pilot fee and wait longer, Reilly said. “Fox wants to do more work in order to get their projects on the air.” He feels that message will attract talent under the new model, which is being widely used in cable. Fox also is adapting the straight-to-series template based off multiple scripts and a bible, which it used on adventure drama Hieroglyph.

As pilots shoot throughout the year, July-October is expected to be particularly busy, with the beginning of the year and spring also earmarked for pilot production activity. Fox also will try to be buying scripts year-round the way cable networks do. However, if the other broadcast networks don’t follow Fox’s lead and remain constrained by the traditional pilot season, Reilly anticipates more active buying during the so-called pitch season in summer and fall. He also plans to continue doing event series alongside traditional drama series.

The move away from pilot season had been years in the making, ever since Reilly returned to what he calls an “antiquated broadcast system” after a stint at FX. “The success ratio on broadcast is not great, so we can’t do any worse,” he said.

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COMMENTS (17)
It’s not how you develop as much as what you develop. If this model allows you to take bigger risks then it’s a good model. If you go with the same warmed over procedurals you’ll end up with the same failure rate.

Comment by What's the show — Monday January 13, 2014 @ 8:47pm PST REPLY TO THIS POST
Then maybe it’s time for Murdoch and Fox to explore expanding their primetime an extra hour, as they’re established in the medium and business enough for them to go that next step along with offering a latenight talk show. You can only do so much on two hours a night and three on Sundays. Some FOX affiliates like the one in Chicago would be thrilled if such an idea happened, considering their news division is a trainwreck right now.

Comment by Jed — Monday January 13, 2014 @ 9:09pm PST REPLY TO THIS POST
What a brilliant move!

I always thought the broadcast pilot season was wasteful!

Comment by American — Monday January 13, 2014 @ 9:24pm PST REPLY TO THIS POST
I’m glad that Kevin Reilly seems to be implementing some real change in the way a network works and it seems to be working for them. Who would have thought that Fox would be the most diverse and forward-thinking of the broadcast networks.

Comment by KR — Monday January 13, 2014 @ 9:26pm PST REPLY TO THIS POST
What does this mean for everyone that has pilots over there this season? They’ll get a call and be told, the living hell your going thru right now could last all year… or your pilot died, because there is no more pilot season.

Comment by ah... — Monday January 13, 2014 @ 9:36pm PST REPLY TO THIS POST
Thank you for helping us understand what it means if pilot season was abolished.
I found it most interesting and encouraging to read that “Fox wants to do more work in order to get their projects on air” and also “plays to continue doing event series alongside traditional drama series.”

As always, Deadline keeps us informed!
Ingrid Moss

Comment by Ingrid Moss — Monday January 13, 2014 @ 10:00pm PST REPLY TO THIS POST
It is ok to not pick up any new shows for next pilot season, no explanations needed, as long as the current shows are working on the net work and just want to stick with those is fine. Only replace things when they’re no longer working , broken etc. Other networks pick up new shows and have to pull the plug after two episodes…..what was the productive reason behind getting new shows again? When something is not broken, don’t fix it.

Comment by 777 — Monday January 13, 2014 @ 10:00pm PST REPLY TO THIS POST
He’s not abandoning pilots. He’s abandoning the old timeframe. “Pilot season” will now last all year. He’ll be taking in pilots whenever he wants and premiering them whenever he wants like a cable network. I can see more shows being ordered directly to 10 episodes and then following it up with larger seasons. I think it makes far more sense than wasting a lot of time on evaluating 1 episode and then ordering a show to season where it might get canceled anyway.

Comment by Feedback — Monday January 13, 2014 @ 11:10pm PST REPLY TO THIS POST

http://www.deadline.com/2014/01/fox-...-will-it-work/

It's about time. 'Jack' said it best on '30 Rock' that the networks put out more failed pilots than Soviet Russia. There needs to be tighter development, and closer scruitinizing of concepts before they get worked out. Just seems like comon sense and other networks eventually will follow. NBC next and CBS probably being last.

[James28]

My thoughts on Pilot Season: The number of pilots that get ordered to series next season (if a network is happy with so many of them) means some existing popular/successful series are doomed to cancellation. And the number of existing series that get renewed for next season makes it tougher for a good pilot to get ordered to series next season.