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The traditional overall development deals have already been overshadowed by the so-called “showveralls” as TV studios opt more and more to sign overall deals with writer-producers who are tied to some of their key shows or are willing to staff. Those expensive development-centered deals are taking another blow in the early round of this development season as the broadcast networks have shrugged off projects from top TV writers. I’ve counted at least a half-dozen pitches by A-list showrunners, all under multi-million-dollar overall deals, that failed to sell over the past couple of weeks. The same thing has happened to a couple of feature writers. “The networks are being extra picky this year,” one top agent said. “The areas in which they choose to buy are narrower, and it feels like auspices are not as important.” This marks a stark departure from the proceedings a year ago. “Last year, you’d walk in the door with a name and you’d get a commitment on the spot,” an insider said. “It was more about being in business with those (writer-producers) than the actual idea.”
Related: Pitch Season Starts Slow, NBC And ABC To Scale Back On Development Volume
Heading into this development season, the networks, especially NBC and ABC, which overspent last year, have indicated that they will buy less. “It seems like it is indeed happening,” another agent noted. Signs that the broadcast networks, in search of fresher voices, were opting to go with less-experienced show creators began towards the end of the last development cycle when a staggering seven pilots, mostly on the comedy side, were picked up to series despite not having an experienced showrunner at the helm.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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…where less experienced showrunners = cheaper.
Let’a not forget that Larry David never ran a show before Seinfeld. And we all know how that turned out…we got originality in the sit-com form.
Maybe the networks are finally realizing that viewers don’t give a shit whose name is on the show, or script, or whatever. They just care if it’s funny/good/entertaining or not. Better content raises the bar for all of us.
People are writing good content it’s the networks who don’t have taste or the ability to distinguish what’s good or what their audience wants to watch. Greenberg and Salke are seriously out of touch and don’t know how to develop with anyone but Brian Fuller. Their pilots this year are all overly complicated and not emotionally accessible. Paul Lee wants a formula to make it easy. He’s constantly putting out these ridiculous phrases for what they want this week. Tassler has to carry out Monnves bidding which is for shows about white men who are heroes and the women who get murdered except for The Good Wife which is like some miracle that it’s on CBS. Fox is lost in drama and their half hour is trying but by targeting only teenage boys they’ve eroded so much of their audience.
There is no taste or gut instinct at any of the networks. NBC doesn’t even read the pilots they get. The heads have farmed out and delegated the lions share of the reading to lower level people. It’s a really sad state of affairs. By relying so much on research testing and not their guts these execs have no developed taste. Seinfeld tested horribly. We’re still watching it because there is very little new content of any value.
AMEN! Wake up networks. It’s not a lack of good material out there. It’s on your end.
You mean networks are finally choosing quality projects over buying random useless crap that has some overpaid unoriginal hack attached to run it? Bravo.
Way to go, Networks. Especially with such a terrible new season looming.
Too many middle aged hacks hocking the same garbage in this town. Most ideas aren’t new. They aren’t fresh. They’re trite and uninspired. Hell, even Sorkin with his tidy themes is beginning to feel dated.
You can teach a newbie writer to produce and run a show. You can’t beat good ideas into someone who’s all out.
AND STOP WITH THE FRIGGING FAIRY TALES ALREADY!
This is all about buyers incompetence and the fact that no one knows what they need, let alone what they want. This story should remnd us all just how messed up the process is and how broken the business has become.
“in search of fresher voices” – I hope that means they’ll be more open to minority/female writers-creators.
Perhaps, and more diversity is always good, but in this instance I think they’re just referring to new, fresh ideas, good stories… no matter what the writer’s sex or color of skin is.
I truly wished the networks/studios/prod-cos shared your altruistic ideals. But clearly, they don’t.
Yes, please; just a few more points of view would be appreciated…
Because that middle-aged white male Chuck Lorre brought us a bunch of shows about young doctors and that fresh face of diversity Shonda Rhimes brought us shows about physicists and a female romantic lead who wasn’t a size O?
Oh, wait, did I get that backwards?
The amount of money wasted on developing pilots is staggering. Networks are finally realizing this. They spent way too much last year and the year before that. Too bad for the agents and the hot writers this will be good for them they need to learn that not everything they want will be given to them. Props to the networks for learning how to pass on shows they don’t need.
Until they come in 4th and realize they should maybe replace some of their shit shows.
Right, everybody will come in fourth. Four networks, all in fourth place.
You really don’t understand the point? Whichever network ends up in fourth (or third for that matter) will inevitably spend more next year to fix the problem.
The way ratings are going, everyone but CBS is tied for last place. Networks don’t compete with each other so much as they compete with all the other stuff people are doing nowadays, driven away by the sheer bland vanilla boredom of network TV. particularly among viewers or should I say non viewers in their 20s.
What are the networks going to do when their upcoming season tanks and they haven’t been buying replacements?
No. It does not mean that.
The town is full of great writers with fresh ideas. Somehow networks thought they could game the system and make their jobs easier if they didn’t have to think and just bought from big name producer writers.
If the networks just stopped buying from over agented WME clients they’d save millions and there might be some good pilots.
The networks could also buy fewer pilots from white men. They write the vast majority of pilots and get paid the largest fees for them.
Well said!!!
Great comment and very true!
How could the networks be so completely out of touch with the viewing audience. Testing doesn’t work. It’s like they don’t even read the news or go to stores or talk to people out of Hollywood. 14 million people watched The Hatfields and the McCoys and not a single western was picked up for network. The shows they pick up only entertain the execs themselves.
As for who they buy pilots from they’ve been throwing huge dollars away by developing with the same ten white guys over and over again. You’d think they’d figured this out long ago.
Happy to hear there are many voices out there standing against the Industry’s discrimination. I truly hope they hear us.
We’re not listening at all!
There are only two kinds of people in this business: Those who have talent, and those who don’t. You’re on one side of the line or the other.
I know plenty of people with mixed backgrounds writing shows, creating shows, writing features. I know a whole lot who aren’t very good either, but they do an awful lot of complaining, and pointing fingers, when they should be rewriting or just finding something else to do.
Not everyone deserves a seat at the table.
I love your well-balanced argument. It’s brilliance is matched with the lack of courage to put your name on it.
You first, Ben.
Good example there – Hatfield & McCoys did poorly on the coasts, especially California, but great in other places,, especially around KY & WV where it was set. that just goes to show that Hollywood is making TV for themselves and who knows how many strong ideas get passed up because Hollywood is so out of touch with what America likes? Hence the networks’ ratings falling through the floor.
We’re already seeing how well this new tactic is turning out – Fox and the CW have each bought a Sleepy Hollow project, and Fox and NBC have each bought an “oh-so-original” twist on a crime procedural, one about a cop who’s losing his memory, then other about a “freak-conomist” who becomes a police chief. In other words, still buying the same shit.
It’s not the sellers that need to be changed, it’s the knucklehead buyers.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Yep. This coming season will do no better than the last and there’s no indication that 2013-14 will do any better. Even Detroit finally cleaned up its act but the TV business seems determined to go right over a cliff.
Would love to have that list of the half dozen A-lists whose pitches were rejected..
This is the problem with the business – no matter how great a writer you are, if you don’t have a name NO agent or manager is willing to take a chance on you — hence you never even make it to the networks.
A lot of talent people have been shut out (meaning they never even get a foot into the door because they don’t have a name) – including me — so that’s why I’ve decided to concentrate on finishing my novel (based on a screenplay).
I can’t believe all the crappy films and TV shows that get made that are just regurgitations of other crappy shows.
The film business is totally f*cked up…period.
Scoo, I get where you’re coming from and I respect how frustrated you must feel. However, as hard as it is to break into the entertainment business (and it is INSANELY hard, especially nowadays), sweeping statements like “no matter how great a writer you are, if you don’t have a name, no agent is willing to take a chance on you” are not true.
Yes, there are a great many wonderful writers out there whose work does not get the attention it deserves. Some don’t get the breaks; others are too out there for mainstream Hollywood sensibilities. But some — or even most — do not equal “all”.
If you have a truly great script (or scripts), there is hope. Shittier scripts may sell first. Fuck ‘em. Untalented lamebrains may get 7 figure development deals. Fuck ‘em. They’re not worth clouding your mind over. Forget about the other guy. What matters most is doing your best work AND being absolutely tenacious. Will that guarantee your success? No. Nothing can, because you’re right, it is an absolutely fucked up business. But as I said, if you’ve got the goods, there is hope…
Feel dizzy…disoriented…there are encouraging words in the Deadline comments section.
All I can say, from the heart, is thank you.
Whatever happened to dividing development into thirds? One third is new writer, one third mid-level writer, one third established/name writer? This is as much about keeping costs down and expecting more from the established writers, asking them to compete for top slots and keep costs low by giving a shot to new and mid-levels.
It worked in the past. Have sensible B-Plans been abandoned for what?
definitely already a precedent and growing quickly.
minority/female staffs WAY quicker than white male. times are a changin’
I agree with the above comments – good article which points out the problem we’ve all been noting for some time: the selection of quality pilots, writer/producers is critical. That can’t be stressed enough. There’s no hope for a successful fall TV season if the pilot development process of the prior winter is a failure.
Story, talent, new ideas, diversity. Those are core pillars that every pilot and team of writers/producers should be focusing upon. The networks need to reward this work, not ignore it for ‘more of the same’. The broadcast television ratings continue to fall – the network’ brass need to get serious about their role in this process and green-light better material, regardless of who is developing that content. Quality should matter.
I am sick and f%cking tired of drama police shows. It doesn’t reflect the real world one bit. CSI is total bulls^&t, I know I work in the field of forensic investigation. We need new blood, new writers, new buyers…
America’s not though. Tune off your set. It’s a dead art form.
If they truly wanted fresh product without the great expense, every network would have a department that ONLY read spec scripts! They are too busy justifying their existence to find great material. Creating and fueling a legitimate spec market in television is an answer to a lot of problems. And it costs next to nothing to test that theory out. But insecurities will prevail, I’m sure.