Written off last year amid the chaos of the writers' strike, pilot season is back in a fairly robust way this year, with the broadcast networks in the final stages of mulling through about 70 scripted projects in advance of next week’s upfronts to advertisers.
That bounty is only about a dozen off from spring 2007, the last normal pilot cycle before the writer’s strike.
Part of this resurgence has to do with attrition of returning shows, which could ultimately turn out to be pretty heavy this year. Cash-strapped networks are a drawing an especially hard line on the escalating production costs typically associated with some older shows. (See accompanying article, "The Casualty Report.")
At NBC, for example, series including "Law & Order," "Medium" and "Chuck," which are still serviceable in terms of ratings delivery, remained on the renewal bubble last week, even as the network began to roll out its fall slate to advertisers.
But the big news this year is comedy. About half of the new series being considered for next fall are sitcoms, and more than half of those are the cheaper-to-produce multi-camera. In fact, networks are evaluating about 20 traditional laugh-track comedies for fall launch -- a huge number considering that only a handful of these shows have even been developed in recent years.
Here's a brief look at where each of the Big Four networks stand, with the big decisions coming during the upfronts showcases, which start May 18:
ABC
Delivering its upfront presentation May 19, ABC suffered some nasty hangover effects from the writers' strike, with a number of hour-long series -- "Pushing Daisies," "Eli Stone," "Dirty Sexy Money" -- losing momentum during an extended hiatus and ultimately succumbing to cancellation this season.
Meanwhile, veteran "Boston Legal" is leaving the schedule, as is "Life on Mars," based on the hit British out-there drama, which couldn't find enough audience to justify its ambitious scale.
The need to establish a few good hour-longs is compounded by the fact that "Lost" is going away next year, and with NBC giving up on scripted drama at 10 p.m. for Jay Leno, now is a pretty good time for the other networks to make hay.
Having considered a dozen drama projects this spring, ABC has already greenlit "Flash Forward," an ABC Studios adaptation of Robert J. Sawyer's best-selling sci-fi novel that stars Joseph Fiennes as the leader of a team of FBI agents investigating an experiment gone way wrong. David S. Goyer ("Batman Begins," "Blade") and Brannon Braga ("Star Trek: Enterprise") co-wrote the pilot script.
Other dramas under consideration include a series remake of NBC's ‘80s alien-invasion-themed mini-event "V," cop-show "The Forgotten" from Jerry Bruckheimer, the "Romeo and Juliet"-themed "Empire State" and "Inside the Box," which revolves around a D.C.-based TV news crew and stars “24’s” Kim Raver.
Meanwhile, ABC has an industry-leading 14 comedy pilots under consideration and has already placed a 13-episode order for 20th Television's single-camera,
mockumentary-style "Modern Family" starring Ed O'Neill.
