Aug. 3, 2026: I know these articles are from 2023, but I still find these articles well -written.
You learn about how TV networks pick their shows and the TV production process.
You can also read about TV show pilots that never got picked up to series.
This is from TV Grim Reaper's Twitter account:
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Show renanceled for 6 episodes, then cast released (#LaBrea)
Will lean likely renewal for all but the weakest shows.Feb. 17, 2023 "Pilot Season 2023: Volume Takes Another Dive Amid Solid Broadcast Debuts & Looming Writers Strike": Today I found this article by Peter White, Nellie Andreeva on Deadline:
It’s pilot season, right? In the old world order, by mid-February, the broadcast networks would have whittled
hundreds of pitches
and dozens of scripts
down to between 10 and 20 comedy and drama pilots each for the Big 4
and about half dozen for the CW.
Pilot Season 2023 is hitting another historic low with 13 pilot orders across ABC, CBS and NBC and none at Fox,
which is going script-to-series,
or the CW, which is eyeing up co-productions and modestly budgeted scripted originals as well as a bigger unscripted slate under its new owners.
“It’s just so light,” one industry observer exclaimed about this year’s volume, which could go up but only slightly.
As to why the numbers are so low, “it feels like network executives
weren’t given a lot of money to spend,
and whatever they have on the air is kind of working,
so there isn’t much real estate,”
an industry source said.
Indeed, declining linear ratings have put pressure on broadcast budgets.
Across-the-board viewership erosion notwithstanding, established series have been chugging along, and the new broadcast additions this season have mostly worked,
including CBS’ Fire Country and So Help Me Todd,
and NBC’s Quantum Leap and Night Court,
which already have been renewed for a second season,
ABC’s The Rookie: Feds
and Fox’s Accused.
Comedy’s retreat, which started a couple of years ago with fewer comedy blocks on the broadcast schedule,
continues with only five comedy pilots total ordered,
which is somewhat surprising given last season’s success of new single-camera half-hours
Abbott Elementary
and Ghosts
and this season’s solid start for multi-cams
Night Court
and Lopez vs. Lopez.
Procedurals once again rule most of the drama orders.
Even before the pandemic drove a bus through the way things were done,
the number of pilots ordered during the traditional January-May window had been trending down
from the high of 100+ a decade ago.
The 2020 pilot season pickups, made on the eve of the pandemic,
had set a new low volume mark with a little over 60 pilots across the five broadcast networks
after ABC and Fox had announced a shift to year-round development and pilot production.
When pilot season returned in 2022, just over 30 pilots were ordered,
roughly half of the pilots commissioned in 2020.
This year, the number went down another 50%.
Meanwhile,
the number of pilots greenlighted outside of the regular pilot cycle
and broadcast projects that go through a writers room
for straight-to-series consideration has been on the rise.
This year,
both CBS
and NBC
ordered two drama pilots each as well as two writers rooms for hourlong projects they would go straight-to-series on in success.
There’s a variety of names used for the new system:
off-cycle,
two-track,
and year-round development
are essentially interchangeable terms
for how the broadcast networks are looking to fill their fall,
and increasingly, midseason schedules.
There are obvious pros and cons.
Under the old system, network chiefs knew exactly when contracts expired and when shows needed to be picked up by.
“Now, it’s so messy to keep track of,” one broadcast network chief told Deadline.
“Back in the day, we were definitely settling on people… having more time to cast properly is a real positive.”
With a fraction of the customary pilot volume yielding so many promising new series this season,
one could see why the networks would want to continue to push down the number of pilots in the traditional cycle.
A looming writers strike is further complicating things.
If there is a work stoppage in May,
when pilots are being picked up to series,
these shows may not be ready for fall,
which could also explain the networks’ hesitance to do many pilots now for fall consideration.
Meanwhile, renewing existing series early would allow them to start working on scripts for next season so they can deliver fresh episodes for fall
even if there is a strike.
(Writers rooms for potential new series also would bank scripts that can be used if the network picks up the show, strike or no strike.)
In addition to freshmen Night Court, Quantum Leap, Fire Country and So Help Me Todd, already renewed for next season are ABC and CBS’ sophomore comedy hits Abbott Elementary and Ghosts, respectively, Fox’s The Cleaning Lady (plus the network’s animated stalwarts), as well as NBC’s La Brea for a third and final season, which is envisioned as strike contingency. More early renewals are expected in the coming weeks.
Additionally, several new drama and comedy series that could’ve premiered this midseason, including CBS’ The Never Game and NBC’s Found, are being held for fall.
With networks preparing for a potential strike, there will undoubtedly be some more room for reality television but it won’t be quite the same as 2007/08.
The majority of these companies have deeper libraries and could potentially run shows from their streaming services
the way CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery found its way to CBS’ fall 2020 schedule when all production had been shut down by the pandemic.
You could imagine Peacock’s Poker Face getting an NBC airing if needed,
ABC scheduling a Hulu or Disney+ series,
or CBS taking a show from Paramount+ or elsewhere in the Paramount Global universe.
Below, Deadline explores how things stand at each of the broadcast networks, which pilots have been ordered for the 2023/24 season and what else is to come on the pilot and series renewal front.
ABC has the most drama pilots this season, the Untitled Drew Goddard project
and The Good Lawyer planted spinoff of The Good Doctor, which were picked up in the fall,
as well as The Hurt Unit and Judgement.
The lone comedy pilot to date is the single-camera Public Defenders.
That likely will be it for upfront consideration and potential spot on the fall schedule but there could be other orders between now and May.
As Deadline reported earlier this month, Tim Allen has been exploring another family sitcom, possibly playing a grandfather, through 20th Television.
Sibling network ABC, where his previous two sitcoms, Home Improvement and Last Man Standing originated, could be a suitable home for it.
As part of ABC’s push into year-round development through “second cycle”,
the network has been focusing on making pilots for fall during pilot season
and then ordering a couple of additional pilots in a second cycle during summer or fall targeted for midseason.
So far, ABC has only renewed its acclaimed sophomore comedy series Abbott Elementary for next season.
More renewals are coming, with the network’s top series expected to return, including Grey’s Anatomy, which still needs to make new deals with several long-time cast members whose contracts are up at the end of the season. The medical juggernaut is headed to one of its biggest creative overhauls, with both the lead from Day 1, Ellen Pompeo, and longtime showrunner, Krista Vernoff, leaving. (Pompeo could be coming back for guest appearances.)
With the Grey’s Anatomy-Station 19
and The Rookie-The Rookie: Feds blocks working well,
it is a safe bet that ABC would aim at bringing them back next season, along with the other veteran medical drama,
The Good Doctor, possibly paired with its proposed spinoff, The Good Lawyer.
Of ABC’s freshman class, only two series premiered in the fall,
The Rookie: Feds, which is considered a shoe-in for renewal,
and Alaska Daily, which is heavily on the bubble and may not continue despite a promising start.
Three series are just now launching, Will Trent, whose premiere is believed to have delivered strong numbers in multi-platform viewing, the Gina Rodriguez comedy Not Dead Yet and Milo Ventimiglia’s This Is Us followup, The Company You Keep.
Continuing a trend of the last couple of years, both of the CBS’ dramas pilots are based on IP and come from established auspices — Robert and Michelle King’s Elsbeth, a police procedural offshoot of the Kings’ The Good Wife/Good Fight universe,
and Matlock, a gender-swap reboot of the classic legal drama, from Jennie Snyder Urman and Eric Christian Olsen.
Also based on existing IP is one of CBS’ two comedy pilots, JumpStart, an adaptation of the comic strip.
With casting being one of the most challenging tasks to complete within the tight time frame and pressure cooker of pilot season,
CBS opted to go for projects with big-names already attached, Kathy Bates (Matlock), Carrie Preston (Elsbeth) and Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr. in CBS’ second comedy pilot, an untitled father-son sitcom.
Despite its recent success with single-camera comedies Young Sheldon and Ghosts, CBS is sticking to its rooted-in-tradition sitcom brand with both of its 2023 pilots being multi-camera.
Additionally, after shifting to mostly presentations on the comedy side last year, the network is returning to full-size pilots for both JumpStart and Wayans Father-Son project. I hear the network is still experimenting with comedy presentations on a side track alongside the main pipeline.
CBS is making up the reduction in drama pilots orders this year with writers rooms for two medical projects
— The Pact
and Watson, which also is based on a popular IP, Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous Sherlock Holmes sidekick character.
They have been put on a different track for potential straight-to-series orders targeting the following 2024-2025 season as CBS continues to employ the model, adopted largely by necessity during the pandemic, alongside standard pilots.
The network is ahead of the rest of the field on renewal decisions this year. It has five of its most popular scripted shows already picked up for next season as part of multi-season renewals, the three FBI dramas, The Equalizer and Young Sheldon.
Add to that the recent renewals for Ghosts, The Neighborhood, Bob Hearts Abishola, Fire Country and So Help Me Todd and the announcement that NCIS: Los Angeles will be coming to an end, and CBS will not have a ton of tough calls to make in May. Most of its lineup is expected to return next season.
However, as is often the case with successful, long-running series, there are some difficult renewal negotiations underway.
And, despite not scoring a renewal alongside its fellow freshmen, East New York also has a chance of continuing. Its chances may be influenced by how strong the upcoming True Lies will come out the gate.
While some of the broadcast networks have pivoted back to a more traditional pipeline,
albeit with two tracks,
after moving towards an off-cycle development process during the pandemic,
Fox has stuck to its script-to-series model.
And as the network begins to figure out what its fall and midseason 2023/24 schedule will look like, it essentially will not be piloting any new projects in the traditional sense.
On the comedy side, there’s a handful of projects in development that will likely be put through the script-to-series model, where the network orders
backup material
and more scripts before potentially handing out a series order.
There’s Rock Camp from The Goldbergs co-exec producer Steve Basilone,
Miami-set multi-cam comedy El Patio
and Buffalo Tens from Riki Lindhome and Natasha Leggero.
A Patricia Heaton project that already has a script-to-series commitment just tapped comedy veterans Carol Leifer and Andy Gordon as writers.
Michael Thorn, President of Entertainment at Fox, told Deadline, “There’s not a one size fits all process in terms of how many scripts [we’ll do] but we will absolutely move a few comedies to that next stage for us to put in consideration, most likely for midseason.”
The network just launched Animal Control, starring Joel McHale. Cindy Snow, the Steve Yockey-penned project, that was originally intended for Animal Control‘s midseason slot, had been talked up as a potential for next season and Thorn said that he “wouldn’t rule that out”.
There are question marks as to whether both Call Me Kat and Welcome To Flatch would return for fourth and third seasons respectively. The former is considered likelier than the latter.
Of Fox’s two midseason dramas, Alert: Missing Persons Unit and Accused, Howard Gordon’s crime drama Accused has performed well and was the most-watched broadcast debut since the premiere of NBC’s Law & Order: Organized Crime in April 2021, so that will likely be back.
Alert hasn’t hit Accused numbers, but Thorn said it was a “solid performer” and is “encouraged” by delayed viewing so could still return.
Fox is now prepping some new developments for midseason 2024 consideration, including a new procedural from The Resident’s Amy Holden Jones and Burn Notice’s Matt Nix and a medical drama, based on Italian scripted format Doc.
Monarch ending after one season will give the network some space to fill and there has been speculation that The Resident may end with its sixth season, although Thorn said that he hadn’t made a decision yet.
There’s a number of drama projects that could fill any shelf space including The Bomb Maker from Carol Mendelsohn, Jenny Is A Weapon from Marc Cherry, an FBI drama from Joy Blake and a port authority project from Barbara Hall and Erik Stiller.
Thorn won’t want to go again through the 11th-hour deal-making that saw the renewal of 9-1-1 and The Resident come down to the wire, closing literally minutes before the network’s May Upfront presentation in New York. “The Upfronts are important. We have incredible advertising partnerships. But that doesn’t mean we have to order everything before the Upfront,” he said.
NBC has handed out pilot orders to Amber Ruffin’s multi-camera half-hour
Non-Evil Twin
and workplace single-camera comedy St. Denis Medical from Justin Spitzer and Eric Ledgin,
as well as Retta-fronted Murder By The Book, from Jenna Bans and Bill Krebs,
and medical drama Wolf, from Michael Grassi, Lee Toland Krieger and Greg Berlanti, on the hourlong side.
NBC’s fall needs are limited as the network, likely at least in part with a potential strike in mind, has put three new scripted series in the can for 2023-24,
Found, from Nkechi Okoro Carroll, which was moved from midseason,
The Irrational, starring Jesse L. Martin,
and an untitled Mike O’Malley multi-camera comedy starring Jon Cryer.
As mentioned, Quantum Leap and La Brea will be back, alongside Night Court, and don’t expect any disturbance in Dick Wolf’s Law & Order and Chicago universes, which would carry on.
New Amsterdam has ended and The Blacklist is also wrapping its run after ten seasons so there will be some medical and crime procedural needs next season.
These could be taken care of by Found, Irrational as well as Murder By The Book or Wolf. There are also high-end crime procedural The Hunting Party, from JJ Bailey and Jake Coburn, and Bans and Krebs’ Grosse Pointe Garden Society, which have been put on a straight-to-series path with the opening of writers rooms.
Also factoring into NBC’s 2023-24 drama plans will be Magnum P.I., saved by NBC after CBS’ cancellation, which returns for its fifth season Feb. 19 with a “sexier” outlook.
On the comedy side, single-camera series American Auto, from Spitzer, and Grand Crew, from Phil Augusta Jackson, are well liked internally and are both in or heading into their second seasons, while newbie multi-cam Lopez vs Lopez recently landed a full season order.
Young Rock might be the most likely comedy to end the same way that Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s fictional political career did at the end of season two.
Given the success of Night Court and the solid start of Lopez vs Lopez, don’t be surprised if there’s more multi-camera in NBC’s future, particularly with projects such as Amigos, from Sierra Teller Ornelas, I Can’t Right Now, from Heather McMahan, and The Regal, from Brad Copeland and Kevin Hart, in various stages of development.
No broadcast network is undergoing a more profound transformation this season that the CW, which got new majority owner, Nexstar, and a new leadership, with all of its former top executives gone.
Nexstar’s executives made it clear from the get-go that the goal is to make the CW profitable by going for cheaper programming.
Former Pop TV president Brad Schwartz, who famously got Schitt’s Creek on American television, is yet to lay out his plans as the CW’s new President of Entertainment. At least for now, they don’t involve pilots.
“I think it will be a mix of unscripted, it’ll be a mix of scripted, and we’ll find the little holes in the market where we can break through,” he told Deadline at the time of his appointment to the CW post in November.
“So I don’t think it’s as black and white, it’s just ‘Oh, you’re gonna do cheap unscripted stuff,’ I don’t think that’s the case.
I think we’re going to try having breakthrough content that brings in large audiences,
and we’re just going to have to figure out a way of doing it efficiently.”
According to sources, the CW brass continue to try and find a financial model as they hold discussions with producers and agents
about making shows for a low license fee,
as low as $1 million an episode.
The network also has been pursuing non-U.S. English-language titles like Channel 4’s breakout comedy Everyone Else Burns.
None of the existing CW scripted series fit into that mold, putting their future in limbo. So far, only flagship drama All American, whose pickup we hear was made as part of Nexstar’s CW purchase agreement, has been renewed for next season.
The new owners already made it clear that no more than a couple of the CW’s current scripted series would make it to next season. Walker, with its broad, cross-country appeal that fits into the CW’s new direction, as well as its efficient production, would make it a candidate should the network opt to keep more scripted series beyond All American.
https://deadline.com/2023/02/pilots-2023-number-drop-broadcast-ratings-writers-strike-1235260091/.
May 4, 2023 "Upfronts 2023: Pilot Buzz Muted By Writers Strike": Today I found this article by Nellie Andreeva on Deadline:
For the second time in three years, the final stage of the broadcast pilot season has been upended by an extraordinary event.
In 2020, it was a global pandemic.
This year, it is a writers strike.
The work stoppage, which started May 2, did not impact pilots, which all had been completed before WGA’s contract with the studios expired May 1, I hear.
But it is expected to affect pickup decisions as the networks are faced with the possibility that no newly ordered or renewed scripted series could go into production for months if the impasse between the writers guild and the studios does not get resolved quickly — which appears unlikely.
These decisions are getting fewer and fewer as pilot season volume has declined sharply since the pandemic,
with 14 pilots across three networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — this year.
(Fox has given straight-to-series orders to dramas HI-Surf and Doc and has three new animated series for next season;
the CW has been stocking up on acquired scripted series.)
Not all pilots will hear their fate before the upfront week of May 15; for those that do, their creators might get the news on the WGA picket lines.
The TV development process is all about the writers, and it is surreal to watch the culmination of their efforts — series greenlights — play out with them on the sidelines.
Between the WGA negotiations, major executive shakeups and layoffs, it has been hard to focus on pilot season this year as
the importance of pilot gossip pales in comparison
to the seismic events in our industry.
But since it is a longstanding Deadline tradition, here is what I am hearing on the eve of the first pilot-to-series orders.
Because everyone is pretty distracted, collecting intel has been very difficult, so, as usual, take the info below with a grain of salt.
It is TBD whether ABC will make any new series pickups before its upfront presentation on May 16. Like many other media companies, the network is said to be taking a wait-and-see approach at the start of the writers strike to assess the situation and evaluate what a commitment to a series would mean financially and logistically in case the writers’ work stoppage stretches for months.
ABC is said to be high on Drew Goddard’s untitled hourlong character-based procedural starring Kaitlin Olson, The project, a remake of the French series Haut Potentiel Intellectuel (HPI), has been a front-runner since September, when Goddard’s scripts impressed ABC brass, landing a quick pilot order.
In addition to HPI, which is considered pretty much a lock, The Good Lawyer also is looking good, I hear. It has a title recognition as a spinoff from The Good Doctor and its backdoor pilot, starring Kennedy McMann and Felicity Huffman, has been well received.
Things are a little murkier when it comes to ABC’s other two drama pilots,
The Hurt Unit, starring Ben McKenzie,
and Judgement, headlined by Sarah Shahi, which both are in contention.
I hear conflicting information whether ABC’s recent move to pick up Fox’s flagship procedural 9-1-1 would impact The Hurt Unit‘s chances. There isn’t a ton of overlap between 9-1-1, which revolves around first responders, including paramedics,
and The Hurt Unit, which is about team of trauma surgeons and nurses who race in the field to help patients.
Still, there is a some common ground, and ABC already has two other medical dramas, Grey’s Anatomy and The Good Doctor, which have been renewed for next season.
Even if 9-1-1 is not a direct competitor to The Hurt Unit, it is taking a slot on ABC’s schedule next season away from a pilot awaiting a pickup or a bubble series waiting for a renewal.
(ABC is yet to make a decision on Big Sky, The Rookie: Feds, The Company You Keep and Alaska Daily)
Judgement, a legal drama spanning multiple timelines, largely has been well received, though there also has been some mixed feedback to the high-concept project, I hear.
On the comedy side, ABC has two workplace comedies with big stars, Public Defenders, headlined by Anthony Anderson,
and Drop-Off (fka Motherland), led by Ellie Kemper.
The network’s bar for comedy is currently very high, set by award-winning sophomore half-hour Abbott Elementary, so there is a chance that no new ABC comedy series emerges from this pilot cycle.
While veteran The Goldbergs is going away, ABC held back The Wonder Years, so it has a fresh season of a comedy series for fall. The Conners‘ renewal is a done deal, ABC also has been happy with newbie Not Dead Yet’s performance, and Home Economics also is a possibility for renewal.
Typically in the rear when it comes to timing of picking pilots to series (and sometimes the last network to make those decisions), CBS is moving to the pole position this year. The Paramount network, which will not hold a presentation during upfront week for the first time since anyone can remember, plans to unveil its fall schedule May 9, a week ahead of its counterparts. CBS’ pilots are expected to factor into its scheduling plans, so the network is expected to make pickup decisions in the next couple of days.
By all accounts CBS has a strong drama pilot contingent as it went with two IP-based projects from proven creators who delivered.
There had been a very strong buzz surrounding Matlock, a reboot of the classic series from Jane the Virgin‘s Jennie Snyder Urman, since the script stage. The pilot, starring Kathy Bates, has kept the momentum, heading into upfronts at full steam as those who have seen it all seem to love it.
Meanwhile, Michelle and Robert King have delivered another strong contender with The Good Wife universe offshoot Elsbeth starring Carrie Preston. It also has been very well received, creating one of those embarrassment-of-riches situations for CBS.
There is some wiggle room as CBS has three bubble series to make a decision on, S.W.A.T., East New York and True Lies, so it could conceivably pick up both drama pilots to series at the expense of renewals. The network already has one new drama series for next season, Tracker, starring Justin Hartley (fka The Nevber Game).
It’s a tougher situation on the comedy side, where CBS already has renewed its current comedy series so it will likely have to choose between its two pilots, JumpStart, starring Terry Crews, and Untitled Wayans Father/Son project, starring Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr., for one slot.
It looks like a tossup between the two, with the Wayans comedy having a slight edge.
Last year, NBC only had one pilot in consideration for the upfronts, drama Quantum Leap, which got picked up. It is a similar situation this year.
I hear the network is not expected to make a call on most — if not all — of its pilots until after it unveils its schedule May 15. There is a possibility for a comedy order before that but that in flux.
Of NBC’s four pilots — two dramas and two comedies — the network has seen one drama, Untitled Jenna Bans/Bill Krebs Project starring Retta, and Justin Spitzer and Eric Ledgin’s comedy St. Denis Medical, headlined by Wendi McLendon-Covey.
I hear St. Denis Medical has been enthusiastically received and is looking very good for a pickup.
NBC brass reportedly also liked the pilot from the Good Girls trio of Bans, Krebs and Retta, but no decision is expected soon as the network is waiting to see medical drama Wolf, starring Zachary Quinto and Amber Ruffin’s comedy Non-Evil Twin.
The network has banked two new drama series for next fall: Found and The Irrational.
https://deadline.com/2023/05/pilot-buzz-2023-abc-cbs-nbc-writers-strike-1235355789/
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