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NBC to drop pilots

24/01/2008

US broadcaster NBC has pledged to stop making pilot TV shows as part of a bid to cut costs in the wake of the Hollywood writers' strike.

TV networks spend millions each year in producing glitzy single episodes of scripts they hope will test well with audiences and land full-series contracts.

And according to NBC Universal chief executive Jeff Zucker, the cost of a pilot show had risen from $3 million (£1.5 million) to $7 million (£3.6 million) in the last three years.

Speaking to journalists at a round-table in London ahead of a video conference address to NBC's 16,000 staff, Zucker explained the low takeup of pilot shows had made the amount spent on their production irrational.

"You are putting in loads of extra money and special effects, but not producing the series you get," he is quoted by the Times newspaper as saying.

"Three to four series are returning from last fall.

"How many pilots were made? Around 75. If pilots were meant to stop shows that shouldn't be airing, well, we went ahead anyway."

With the movie and TV industry hit hard by the ongoing Hollywood writers' strike, studios have been forced to make sweeping budget cuts while several series - including Bionic Woman, starring former EastEnder Michelle Ryan - are languishing uncertainly having been postponed.

But talking to the Financial Times, Zucker explained that the industrial action could have helped Hollywood reassess its priorities.

"I think there were a tremendous number of inefficiencies in Hollywood and it often takes a seismic event to change them, and I think that's what's happened here," he said.

Zucker explained scripted series will be marketed but will go straight to air, without the need for a glossy pilot.