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NBC chief details new approach to television
Hey, it looks like all that time the strike has allowed network executives to rethink the industry may actually lead to some positive changes after all. NBC's president/CEO Jeff Zucker explained how the struggling net is changing its whole strategy on television. The days of the $10 million dollar mini-movie pilot, which bears no resemblance to later episodes done for less than $100,000 each, appear to be over at NBC. Instead, more series will be committed to based on script treatments alone, and rather than make sixty-two pilots and throw them all at the wall, they'll focus on maybe five or six. And you can forget about the lavish "upfronts" where they unveil a circus cavalcade of wasted money ... and their new pilots. Cable's been doing it this way for years. Now let's analyze where the most talked about shows on television are being broadcast.
Let's face it, network television lost whatever edge it had, and has only grown more frightened and bland post-Janet. But when they collectively launch thirty to forty new shows each year only to watch 80-90% of them fail, it's just bad business for them and bad for fans, too. First, we have to decide from among thirty to forty new shows all premiering in a few weeks span to see which ones we might want to try. Then, when we do make that decision, we go into it wondering how many episodes will come out before it's yanked.
But when FX, AMC or USA announces a new series, they tell us how man episodes we're going to get and we're essentially guaranteed that many. And they premiere them all year round, rather than all at once. So more people are willing to invest their time and energy into caring about those characters and situations. If Damages had launched on NBC this past fall, how many people would have avoided it for fear that it would get canceled before the storyline finished. How many shows has that happened with (The Nine and Reunion are just a couple of the most recent offenders).
Show creators are guaranteed a set number of episodes to tell their story and they can write for that. Imagine the quality and heart that goes into basic cable channel shows being put into shows on a network budget. Sure, the downside for the industry is there would be less work. After all, if NBC is ordering six pilots instead of eighty, that's a ton of people fighting for a very few jobs. Which means only the best would get it? So then the product is even better. It's a win all around! Well, except for those people who don't get those jobs. But they can always try out for American Idol next season. Or get "real" jobs.
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