TV Networks' No-Pilot Strategy Crashes and Burns

Not much is sacred in the way broadcast TV operates anymore. So last year, when network bigs such as Les Moonves of CBS and NBC’s Jeff Zucker and Ben Silverman, came out pooh-poohing the benefits of pilots — those test versions of prospective new series — it seemed like just another nail in the coffin of the way the nets have done business for decades. (Disclosure: BNET is owned by CBS.)

But it’s looking like the pilot might have been given a premature burial. Roughly three months into the new TV season, The Hollywood Reporter presents evidence that the no-pilot movement has been a failure, citing the sorry fates this season of a number of so-called “straight-to-series” shows. Most notably, NBC, which came out the strongest against pilots last year, has canceled the heavily-touted Christian Slater vehicle My Own Worst Enemy along with another pilot-free show: Crusoe.

There’s an even longer list of straight-to-series shows that have required some form of re-engineering. NBC’s adventure show Philanthropist, which is supposed to go on-air mid-season, has gone back to the factory for reworking; so has Fox’s Dollhouse. At CBS, shows that went through the traditional pilot process have fared much better than those that did not.

Last year, in seeming ready to kill off pilots, execs cited their high production costs, the Writers Guild of America strike and a belief that shows with pilots had no greater chance at success than those that did not. This year, using spin worthy of, well, a network TV exec, NBC co-chair Marc Graboff told The Hollywood Reporter, “The lesson learned from the last year is that going straight to series is a tool to be used, but not the only tool to be used.”