pilots passed on this year sound dreadful!

[Temis the Vorta]

There's very little incentive for networks put pilots on the internet because there's no money to be made from that. Even full fledged, popular, highly marketed series don't make much money on the internet. One pilot, which will be interesting only to a very small percentage of people who follow sf/f series development (or cop show series development, etc) will be nothing more than an inconsequential blip.

Basically the suits don't want to air their dirty laundry in public. Unpicked up pilots are dirty laundry because they represent failure in one way or the other - failure because they're bad and they should never have been greenlit, or failure because they're good and should have been picked up to series.

I wonder about the screeners that are sent out to reviewers and why they aren't popping up in various places? I suspect they've been coded in some way so that the networks can trace the miscreants and axe them from the screener list.

 

[Kegg]

Well I just thought making a small amount of money based on subscribers is probably preferable to making no amount of money based on putting it on a shelf and letting it rot until someone leaks it and people watch the damn thing for free.

It wouldn't really be airing it in 'public' either, because, c'mon, it's the internet - you'd have to be the kind of person who'd voluntarily sit down to watch Precinct 17 on your computer monitor and pay money for the privilege.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Any pilots made public on the internet will be passed around and snarked at.

 

[gblews]

I was reading just this morning about a Tim Kring pilot for a proposed series called "Touch". Anyone heard of this? Has it already been discussed to death here? Didn't see it mentioned in that Futon Critics' article.

Don't know much about it except it is supposed to star Keifer Sutherland. GuGu Mabatha-Raw is also in it. The site stated the show had not been picked up yet, but with Keifer on board, Fox would likely put it on the spring schedule.

Anyone know any more?

 

[Vendikarr]

I was reading just this morning about a Tim Kring pilot for a proposed series called "Touch". Anyone heard of this? Has it already been discussed to death here? Didn't see it mentioned in that Futon Critics' article.

Don't know much about it except it is supposed to star Keifer Sutherland. GuGu Mabatha-Raw is also in it. The site stated the show had not been picked up yet, but with Keifer on board, Fox would likely put it on the spring schedule.

Anyone know any more?

Due to other commitments for Sutherland, the pilot hasn't been shot yet. It's believed Fox will give it a mid-season pick up, as long as it doesn't totally suck.

 

[RoJoHen]

There's very little incentive for networks put pilots on the internet because there's no money to be made from that. Even full fledged, popular, highly marketed series don't make much money on the internet. One pilot, which will be interesting only to a very small percentage of people who follow sf/f series development (or cop show series development, etc) will be nothing more than an inconsequential blip.

Basically the suits don't want to air their dirty laundry in public. Unpicked up pilots are dirty laundry because they represent failure in one way or the other - failure because they're bad and they should never have been greenlit, or failure because they're good and should have been picked up to series.

I wonder about the screeners that are sent out to reviewers and why they aren't popping up in various places? I suspect they've been coded in some way so that the networks can trace the miscreants and axe them from the screener list.

You know what they should do? Stations should just take a few weeks during the slow summer months and have a real "Pilot Season" where they show all the pilots from their potential Fall line-up. Then people can go online and have a chance to review them so the networks can see which pilots were better received by the country at large.

 

[AviTrek]

There's very little incentive for networks put pilots on the internet because there's no money to be made from that. Even full fledged, popular, highly marketed series don't make much money on the internet. One pilot, which will be interesting only to a very small percentage of people who follow sf/f series development (or cop show series development, etc) will be nothing more than an inconsequential blip.

Basically the suits don't want to air their dirty laundry in public. Unpicked up pilots are dirty laundry because they represent failure in one way or the other - failure because they're bad and they should never have been greenlit, or failure because they're good and should have been picked up to series.

I wonder about the screeners that are sent out to reviewers and why they aren't popping up in various places? I suspect they've been coded in some way so that the networks can trace the miscreants and axe them from the screener list.

You know what they should do? Stations should just take a few weeks during the slow summer months and have a real "Pilot Season" where they show all the pilots from their potential Fall line-up. Then people can go online and have a chance to review them so the networks can see which pilots were better received by the country at large.

Interesting idea, except it would turn into a massive case of selection bias. Only the extreme TV geeks will tune into a pilot week to check out the shows. And only a limited subset of them will bother to go online and express an opinion. You'd end up making shows that cater to 1% of the population at best.

Now personally, I might like some of the niche shows that come out of a process like that. But you can bet that mass market shows like American Idol would never get through the process. And if the networks can't get a mass market audience then the process is a failure.

 

[Christopher]

Like I said, networks used to do that in the '70s and '80s, burning off failed pilots in "Showcases" or "Specials." But they don't seem to do it anymore. Maybe there's a reason they stopped.

 

[RoJoHen]

There's very little incentive for networks put pilots on the internet because there's no money to be made from that. Even full fledged, popular, highly marketed series don't make much money on the internet. One pilot, which will be interesting only to a very small percentage of people who follow sf/f series development (or cop show series development, etc) will be nothing more than an inconsequential blip.

Basically the suits don't want to air their dirty laundry in public. Unpicked up pilots are dirty laundry because they represent failure in one way or the other - failure because they're bad and they should never have been greenlit, or failure because they're good and should have been picked up to series.

I wonder about the screeners that are sent out to reviewers and why they aren't popping up in various places? I suspect they've been coded in some way so that the networks can trace the miscreants and axe them from the screener list.

You know what they should do? Stations should just take a few weeks during the slow summer months and have a real "Pilot Season" where they show all the pilots from their potential Fall line-up. Then people can go online and have a chance to review them so the networks can see which pilots were better received by the country at large.

Interesting idea, except it would turn into a massive case of selection bias. Only the extreme TV geeks will tune into a pilot week to check out the shows. And only a limited subset of them will bother to go online and express an opinion. You'd end up making shows that cater to 1% of the population at best.

Now personally, I might like some of the niche shows that come out of a process like that. But you can bet that mass market shows like American Idol would never get through the process. And if the networks can't get a mass market audience then the process is a failure.

Well, I'm not saying that it should be the only thing they base their decisions on. They can still do everything exactly the same. This would just be something extra to help weed out some bad pilots before they get picked up or to help some questionable pilots get pushed into being made.

 

[AviTrek]

You know what they should do? Stations should just take a few weeks during the slow summer months and have a real "Pilot Season" where they show all the pilots from their potential Fall line-up. Then people can go online and have a chance to review them so the networks can see which pilots were better received by the country at large.

Interesting idea, except it would turn into a massive case of selection bias. Only the extreme TV geeks will tune into a pilot week to check out the shows. And only a limited subset of them will bother to go online and express an opinion. You'd end up making shows that cater to 1% of the population at best.

Now personally, I might like some of the niche shows that come out of a process like that. But you can bet that mass market shows like American Idol would never get through the process. And if the networks can't get a mass market audience then the process is a failure.

Well, I'm not saying that it should be the only thing they base their decisions on. They can still do everything exactly the same. This would just be something extra to help weed out some bad pilots before they get picked up or to help some questionable pilots get pushed into being made.

And then what happens when a small dedicated fanbase praises a show, despite all focus groups and marketing experts saying the show will flop? Can you imagine how the Joss fanboys would react to Fox not picking up their show despite the high vote count they gave it?

The networks have nothing to gain from this, and a ton of bad PR to lose.

 

[RoJoHen]

Can you imagine how the Joss fanboys would react to Fox not picking up their show despite the high vote count they gave it?

Well, obviously, Joss Whedon shows would be banned from participating.