LA’s Percentage of Pilot Production Hits Record Low

2016 season marked first time less than 40 percent of pilots for new series were filmed in the City of Angels

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Los Angeles continues to decline as a desirable place to shoot television pilots, according to new survey results.

Film L.A.’s 2016 Pilot Production Report states that 201 broadcast, cable and digital pilots were produced during the 2015-16 development cycle, and just 79 of those were filmed in L.A., a 13 percent drop from 2015, when 91 of 200 pilots were filmed here.

According to the LA Times, this marks the first time less than 40 percent of TV pilots have been filmed in the City of Angels, and is especially staggering when compared to 10 years ago, when L.A. represented 82 percent of all pilots filmed.

“The California Film and Television Tax Credit program has proven to be a vital tool in the fight against runaway production. And it is delivering results for the men and women who are the heart and soul of our entertainment industry — the people who swing the hammers, drive the trucks, run the cable, and serve the food on set,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement. “This report contains a lot of good news, but it also shows that L.A. is still losing too many good jobs, and too much revenue, to other states. We must continue investing in the future middle class of this city, and commit ourselves to doing all we can to ensure that production stays where it belongs — right here, in the creative capital of the world.”

L.A. is still the most popular pilot shooting location, however, followed this year by New York (28 pilots), Vancouver (25 pilots), Atlanta (15 pilots) and Toronto (12 pilots).

The decline in L.A. pilots were attributed to a large decline in comedy pilots filming locally, a 23 percent drop, while drama pilot filming ticked up a bit.

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