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As expected, NBCU puts an end to pilots

Posted by Cory Bergman on January 23, 2008

NBCU chief Jeff Zucker followed through on his promise to stop the time-honored but ridiculously expensive tradition of ordering a bunch of pilot episodes every season, only to pick up a handful of shows. “So you’re spending money on programs you’re not going to get,” said Zucker, who explained the network may still order one or two a season. “It’s clear we are in a recession in the United States, and we’re going to have to manage our business accordingly,” he said. But truth be told, I wouldn’t blame the strength of the U.S. economy but the rapidly-changing economic model surrounding the television industry, as evidenced by the writers strike.

  • Gorman

    Great. So that leaves room for, say, two new shows a year? Let me guess: one will be a game show, the other a reality show?

    I understand the model is outdated, however my optimism that this will produce anything other than crap, lowest common denominator shows isn’t very high.

  • Anonymous

    Please clear up your code so we don’t have to view all these ” charecters,

    Thank you

  • TVluvr

    Look at the wording in this article, but here and the NYtimes. This is another propaganda piece by the studios against the WGA, trying to make the public think of the writers as overpaid whiners and the broadcasters and studios look like underdogs trying to get by. Ever since they announced they were canceling their contracts for pilots, the studios and broadcasters have been making announcement after announcement about how much money the pilots cost. Where’s the announcement about how much money they made from the ones that got on the air? I promise you, when this strike is over, they’ll go back to making a high number of pilots

  • Joe D

    Isn’t one of the main reasons that NBC is doing this is because pilot work would be going on now for next season, but with the strike, there will most likely not be any pilots anyway?

    Saying that, why do I get this feeling that within the next 5 years, network TV is going to be all reality and game shows, all of the time. Scripted shows will go the way of prime-time news magazines.

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