The Creation of TV Pilots, from Conception to Special Delivery

Let's examine how shows are born, from conception to birth, from printed ideas to pilots making the grade and how ratings effect the newborn shows.

Birth of Creation

The birth of creation starts with an interesting storyline premise and then a good script. Whether it's a half-hour comedy or hour-long drama, the teleplay needs a blend of lead and supporting characters. If it's comedy, viewers need to smile and laugh. Punchlines, one-liners and scene stealers are all good elements of a sitcom. If it's drama, it needs to be riveting, action, drama and thrills seal the deal for dramas. Research also comes into play, when you're writing about law, law enforcement, forensics, medicine in order to have the right terminology and lingo.

A Pregnant Pause

Before it reaches the small screen, it goes through a hierachy of organization. The storyline has to pass muster with the Managers of the Departments of Drama and Comedy. Then it's approved by the Directors of those departments. Then it's handed up to the VP of both departments to Senior Vice President of Programming. The same flow happens to the Motion Pictures and Current Programming Departments. The Senior VP of Programming also handles the Children's and Daytime Departments. Then it goes on to the higher echelon, the President of Entertainment Division. Finally, the President and CEO of the network, who handles Affiilate Relations, News, Sports, and Owned-and-Operated (O&O's) Departments. That's a long way from idea to the small screen.

The Heartbeat

The entertainment industry has their own hierachy flow chart. There's the Creative Community, composed of writers with ideas and talent, directors, authors, star talent, comics, music and theater. The agencies handle the deals and packages for acting, money for fees for music, star talent and theater, along with fees and commissions for music. The flow of communication goes both ways. The producers and independents give the work to the agencies to pass up to the production/development funding, to hand down finished films, packages and scripts. Then it's the studios and distributers for the product, with revenues from TV returned to the studio. Finally, the markets and audiences come into play with primary and domestic markets, the international aftermarkets, along with merchandising and licensing.

The Weight of the Draft

The networks recently had a draft of first picks, like in sports. They look for promising shows to fill vacancies. Once a slot was filled, they were looking also for midseason contention, and summer slots.

The midseason shows fall into three categories: early bird, normal, and night owl. Most midseason shows start in January, (early bird), and to have thirteen episodes or more. The middle category (normal), starts around March with an order of 8-13 shows. The latter category (night owl), begins in late March-April with only 4-6 episodes.

The Pitch

Once written and approved, a casting call is used to find actors. A lot of time is needed to cast a perfect match for the various characters. A behind-the-scenes crew is put together. Once the location is found and the sets built, it's time to shoot the pilot. When a finished pilot is available, it's time to pitch it to the networks.

The network executives will base their decision on slots available, genre of show, potential for longevity and the quality of the product. The final hurdle for most shows is audience testing.

Labor of Love

Networks use a testing company, ASI, to determine the potential success of programs. ASI recruits people by phone to be a test audience member. The volunteer enters a chilly 68-degree theater with a screening room. The person in charge goes through the directions on how to register their thoughts. Forty-eight people are judges for a new show. They are given palm-sized dial gizmos. Each has a dial that ranges from double-minus through neutral to double-plus. The test audience moves the dials constanty as the pilot is shown. This way characters, jokes, action, dialogue, and overall potential is determined. The dial movement is instanty communicated to the testers through a graph.

The testers lurk somewhere unseen, monitoring the real-time results. If anyone is totally turned off, a red button is available to end the test.

Also video cameras watch every move in the screening room behind a two-way mirror. No sounds or talking is allowed because the reactions might be contagious; if laughter's heard, it might screw it up. The ASI's CEO, David Castler, said, "men push a plus for sex and violence, while women respond well to babies and dogs." The goal isn't really for laughter or being engaged in a drama series; it's fixing what's wrong, and improving what's good, if possible. If a character gets a minus, it's rewritten or recast; if a joke falls flat, it's reworked. It's the "tweak" factor.

A pilot may be well-received,but subsequent episodes may fail flat. In rare occasions, just the opposite happens. "Seinfeld" and "All in the Family" failed during test results, but later were the underdogs that defeated the odds in the long run.

Those two-hour sessions are moved to questionnaires and conclude with a focus group that provides specifics and context. Those recruited are paid $50-75. People who like and watch TV are the aim. If it has a particular audience, clients often specify age and gender, and some request participants who like or dislike a genre.

ASI tests about 150 pilots a year at $20,000 to the client. Home testing through designated cable channels also can be done for $40,000, if it's tested in non-California locations. Every scripted show headed for television, except for reality shows, stops off for testing at this company.

A Show is Born!

Every year there may be at least 20-30 slots for pilots to accomodate the schedule-10 each for one-hour dramas and half-hour comedies. Only about 50% make it to the regular season, 30% become midseason replacements, and 5% used for summer shows.

The only exception to the rule is reality shows, which make up about 10% of the schedule. Since they're unscripted, you need a changing environment, willing contestants and the right mix of people to pull in viewers. Auditions are held around the country to find the contestants. Some programs request contestants submit video tapes first and then they interview the ones they find interesting.

Contraptions

Before we explore the Nielsen Ratings, let's explore the numbers. It's all in the cards.

If you wanted a guarantee for success, the following number ratings had helped in reaching that goal. The ratings went from 0.0- 20.0. Zero is a rare ocurrence. "The Mountain" went six feet under with those marks in 2005 like 0.27. The following gives examples with their shows by their grade and placed it in categories.

Any show that scored a 9.0-20.0, (4-4.5 for the CW network), were ultimate winners with "A's.". "CSI" is one of the few shows to reach 15.0 plus. That's always a guarantee bet, it'll be back, and will be a long running show, unless something strange happens.

All shows scored a 8.0-9.0, (3.5-3.9 for CW), were good bets with "B's", like "Cold Case." Anything that scored 5.5-7.0, (3-3.5 for CW), had a fair shot like "Las Vegas." In the past, shows with average ratings sometimes don't make the final cut for the fall schedulle. These shows with a "C" grade was a wait-and-see, and placed "on the bubble" until the "Upfronts".

Shows that scored a 4.0 -5.4, (2-2.9 for CW), were "D's" like "Crossing Jordan." They had a slim chance of making it, unless they're given a chance to fix it, and ratings approved. Otherwise, this was a good indication that it was time to look for new work, before the sand ran out in their hourglass. Finally, anything below 4.0, (under 2.0 for CW), were bad luck shows with F's." They end up cancelled like "Runaway".

Let's discover how the ratings worked for your favorite show to its advantage or disadvantage. Let's take a rating for no particular show: 6.5/7 #6/3.0 #9. "6.5" is the household ratings, which indicates 6.5% of all households in the U.S watched the program. The "7" following is the household share, which indicates 7% of all households watched TV. The last half of that household rating is "#6", which is the household ratings for that night; if there's a "T", it's a tie.

The last two parts deals with the 18-49 demographics there was among the U.S. viewerships. The "3.0" is the 18-49 adults rating, which indicated 3.0% of all adults 18-49 in the U.S. Finally, the "#9" is the adults 18-49 ranking for the night.

False Alarm

During the "Upfronts" last month, there were a total of 117 pilots for the fall season. A big majority won't make it to the screen, only about twenty-five will survive. That was 1/3 of the fall schedule, with the exception of reality shows and midseason replacements, only six shows per network.

Early Arrivals

NBC, on May 15th, had nineteen pilots up for early arrival: eight dramas, nine comedies, two reality shows and one midseason replacement. What NBC needed was to have a clear-cut stable of shows post-Sunday Night Football. They needed a rock solid drama to fill the gap for 10 P.M. They also needed one or two dramas for 8-10 P.M on Wednesday night. On Friday night, they needed a 8 P.M. slot filled with a drama or a reality show. They were uncertain about comedies, unless they found a new night for it, or dropped a show at the last minute. NBC needed more dramas with at least 5-10 open slots.

Breach Births

ABC, on May 16th, had more pilots than any other network: fifteen dramas, seventeen comedies, one reality show, and three midseason replacements. What ABC needed was a solid 10 P.M. show on Monday night, and two comedies pre-"Dancing with the Stars", at 9:00 on Tuesday night. They also needed comedies for Wednesday nights in the same time slot, and a drama for Fridays at 9:00.

CBS, on May 17th, listed their selections: ten dramas, eleven comedies, two reality shows, and at this time, no midseason shows. What CBS needed were 1-2 comedies for 8:30 P.M. and/or 9:30 P.M., possibly on Monday. They needed a solid drama to fill in the 10 P.M. slot on Tuesday night.

Overdue Births

Fox and CW were the last two networks to announce their schedule on May 18th. Fox had twenty-nine shows: ten dramas, eighteen comedies, one reality show and one midseason replacement.

CW had the least to bring to life, with only thirteen pilots to make the cut: seven dramas, five comedies, one reality show and one midseason show. On Sunday nights, CW needed a 8 P.M. family-oriented drama, and had a 9 P.M. slot free. On Tuesdays nights, they needed a new drama to lead-in at 8 P.M and possibly a 9 PM show.

On Monday nights, Fox needed a 9 P.M. drama to take the pre-"24" slot. As for Fox, they needed a 8 P.M. drama to take the place pre-"Idol". On Wednesday nights, Fox needed a 9 P.M. slot "pre-Idol". Fox needed a 9 P.M. slot on Thursday nights. And Friday nights, Fox needed two dramas at 8-10 P.M.

In a nutshell, twenty-two slots were open. CBS had the least vacancies, and CW has an average amount of work to do. NBC, ABC and Fox had a lot of soul searching to find out what fits and what doesn't. From the creation of an idea to then the birth of a pilot, these shows took center stage at the "Upfronts" last month.

The coming season will tell us how successful each network was in enhancing their programming, increasing viewership and winning their time slots.