The 30 Rock joke about NBC executive Jack Donaghy reviving the network by “mak[ing] it 1997 again through science or magic” aired in 2011. Now, the real NBC is embarking on a somewhat unlikely revival of a TV tradition that was alive and well both in the Must-See TV era and in 30 Rock’s heyday: pilot season.
The network ordered four pilots this week, which is one more than it did all of last season. The orders came for three dramas — a Rockford Files reboot, a show about a family of U.S. marshals (Protection) and one inspired by the work of real-life criminal profiler Ann Burgess — and one comedy, a private eye show from Brooklyn Nine-Nine alumni Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici. The latter already had a production commitment but received a formal green light on Friday.
Sources say the network isn’t done, either — it’s expected to order pilots for a few more shows currently in development. With TV development having almost fully switched to a year-round calendar and most networks and streamers opting for different development models, whether it’s straight-to-series orders or development writers rooms ahead of a series pickup, an outlet making even a half dozen pilots in one year is noteworthy.
ABC and CBS have each made a couple of pilot orders as well. ABC is piloting a Rookie spinoff starring Jay Ellis and a comedy titled Do You Want Kids?, and CBS has ordered a pair of comedies: Eternally Yours, about a family of vampires, and Regency, a family comedy set in 19th century England. Fox — whose then head, Kevin Reilly, declared the death of pilot season more than a decade ago — mostly operates on script-to-series or straight-to-series models now.
Just about everyone agrees that the old pilot season model — in which networks bought a few hundred scripts and then produced 50 or more pilots to order maybe a combined 30 shows for the following TV season — was terribly inefficient. But it also provided work to hundreds of actors, writers and crew members (which in turn helped all those people further develop their craft) while letting decision makers at those networks see a finished product, if only one episode.
Lisa Katz, head of scripted content for NBC and Peacock, has pushed to make more pilots, and NBCUniversal had budgeted more money to do so in the current development cycle, sources tell THR. Those plans were already in motion when Pearlena Igbokwe added NBC Entertainment and Peacock’s scripted output to her purview along with NBCU’s TV studios, and she endorsed the idea. NBC will also continue year-round development, as it’s done for a number of years.
Last year, NBC ordered three pilots, all comedies, and took two of them to series: Stumble, which airs with Happy’s Place on Friday nights, and The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins starring Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe. The latter is set to premiere Sunday following an NFL playoff game before beginning its regular run on Monday nights starting Feb. 23.
NBC did not order any new dramas for this season (and canceled several last year) largely because its NBA commitments reduced the amount of space on the primetime schedule. But that also means it doesn’t currently have any dramas in the bullpen while two second-year shows, Brilliant Minds and The Hunting Party, are bringing in only modest ratings (in their on-air numbers, both are down from their rookie seasons). The Chicago and Law & Order blocks that take up five hours across Wednesday and Thursday nights will also have to end at some point (though very likely not anytime soon).
What NBC is doing this year likely doesn’t herald a return to the frenzied pilot calendar of a couple decades ago. But it might reopen the door a little for a more old-school development cycle. If running shows on a regular, yearly cadence — something streamers and premium outlets have recently rediscovered is a good thing — can make a comeback, why not pilots?
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