Explainer Video - Vanity Fair YouTube Channel - Pilot Season
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North American (General) North American (US General American - GenAM)Transcript
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in 2017 almost 500 made for television shows aired on broadcast, cable and streaming services. One can only imagine how many TV scripts never made it that far. Well, imagine no more. Welcome to pilot season. Or, as we like to say, how a TV show gets made to start, we have to explain what pilot season is a modern day television production version of the Hunger Games only filled with way more stress and anxiety. Island season is a period of time. Every spring, when the fate of roughly 75 to 100 new TV shows not to mention the dreams and lively hoods of thousands of men and women are decided for the forthcoming traditional television season, However, this seasonal process has become a bit archaic. With the advent of cable and streaming services, Pilot season isn't really a season anymore, but a yearlong process culminating in each network, showing their best new shows to advertisers and, ultimately green lighting. Maybe half of the pilots to Siri's. And even for those that don't make the first cut, there is a chance of a second life. Some pilots will be recast, reshot or even shopped around to other networks. But the sad truth is millions of dollars and thousands of hours are spent and lost on shows that will never see the light of day. So how does pilot season work Broadcast networks actually start taking pitches from writers during the late summer of the previous year? By fall, they choose the pitches they like most, and a sign outlines to writers to begin scripting. After a few months of writing and rewriting those pilots scripts air turned in for review by the networks. Pilots are ordered by mid February, quickly resulting in a state of Hollywood history. At this point, hundreds of actors, producers and production crews begin a mad dash to rehearse, film and edit their pilots with a deadline of the end of April, when executives will screen and review each one, along with showrunners notes on how the first season will play out, typically called a show Bible, that brings us to what is typically the third week in May, the network upfronts a grand spectacle of Hollywood excess in which executives showcase their best pilots toe advertisers all to entice them to buy television spots around their most exciting new shows. now that they're shows have been picked up, showrunners begin to staff up there writing rooms by June, bringing pilot season to a close for a few months until the process begins again. So how did this archaic process begin? The answer, in a word, is cars. Beginning in the 19 forties, pilot season was developed in order to cash in on the booming new car industry. And ever since that time, big brands and advertising have been a cornerstone of television's prime time lineup for the past 70 years. Networks Air then relied on not only delivering splashy premieres and big marketing campaigns, but also consistent viewership week after week, translating toe eyeballs on commercials, strategic ad campaigns branded integrations. However, in recent years, the advent of premium cable and streaming has changed all of that. The subscription based model for digital networks like Amazon, Netflix and Lulu allows these new networks to not rely so heavily on advertising dollars to fund their programming, which disrupts and dismisses the very concept of a so called pilot season. This new model of content distribution allows producers and writers to develop pitch and sell shows year round, allowing form or creatives to not only work but toe work throughout the year. But this expanding job market has not come without obstacles and setbacks, one of which is something Hollywood calls the mini room. The Mini Room is a smaller collection of writers hired by networks and studios to knock out scripts quickly and inexpensively and in some cases replace shooting pilots altogether. Sometimes these many rooms comprise on Lee, the show's creator, and a couple of writers, while other many rooms are run by a show runner and a handful of lower level and much lower paid writers. So despite the abundance of opportunities, the industry still found a way to produce more while committing toe less up front and also cutting costs. But at the end of the day, consumers now have more options. Programming is more diverse, and there's more opportunity for different non traditional stories. To be told, TV is no longer just for entertainment. It's a bona fide form of art, enlisting Hollywood's biggest stars to tell the most unlikely stories. So while the television industry continues to soar to new heights, it is still too early to bet the house solely on a subscription based model which means pilot season is here to stay, including extravagant upfronts and highly marketed fall premiere lots of car commercials, at least for now.