UPDATED: It’s pilot season in July! The lasting impact of the pandemic on the traditional broadcast pilot cycle continues to be felt as production and pickup decisions on a sizable number of broadcast pilots have shifted off-cycle. ABC and NBC have five and six off-cycle pilots this year, respectively, while CBS has a decision to make on a project with a pilot production commitment, and Fox is eyeing more script-to-series orders. As usual, information is scarce and not always reliable early on, but here is what I am hearing about various pilots. Keep in mind that not all projects are on the same timetable, so if they are not mentioned, that could mean that there is not enough feedback on them yet. I hear NBC is ahead of ABC in the pilot-evaluation process and might start making pickup decisions as early as this week. The networks have a little bit more time as most pilot cast options are believed to expire at the end of August.
Primetime-Panic Your Complete Guide to Pilots and Straight-to-Series orders See All
Your Complete Guide to Pilots and Straight-to-Series orders
Drama pilot Will Trent, starring Ramon Rodriguez as a Special Agent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, emerged as an early front-runner among the off-cycle crop of ABC pilots weeks ago and is looking very strong. I hear writers rooms have been opened for both Will Trent and fellow drama pilot The Company You Keep, headlined by This Is Us star Milo Ventimiglia, in hopes that they would get pickups. David E. Kelley’s Avalon, which already has a straight-to-series order, also is looking good, I hear. The picture at ABC is expected to get clearer next week.
CBS made decisions on all of its 2022 pilots in May. The network had drama The Never Game, starring and executive produced by This Is Us‘ Justin Hartley, with a pilot production commitment. I hear the project, based on Jeffrey Deaver’s novel, is heating up for a pilot order. The project quietly underwent a writer change in the spring, with Ben Winters replacing Michael Cooney. Winters’ script was recently received by the network brass who are said to be high on it, I hear.
Information on NBC’s pilots is pretty sketchy. Missing-persons drama pilot Found, from All American‘s Nkechi Okoro Carroll and Berlanti Prods., is nearing a series order, I hear. It stars Shanola Hampton and Mark-Paul Gosselaar. Blank Slate, from The Blacklist producer Davis Entertainment and one of Universal TV’s most reliable drama creators, Dean Georgaris — whose previous three pilots all went to series — also has been getting some buzz, along with The Irrational, whose filming took longer because of a Covid case, and I hear the final cut is only being delivered this week, so a decision on it might not be imminent. The project has been meeting with writers.
UPDATE: NBC has passed on drama pilot Unbroken, starring Scott Bakula, which will be shopped by studio Universal Television.
2nd UPDATE: Blank Slate also has been passed ob and is being shopped by Uni TV. This is somewhat of a surprise as the pilot had been well received internally at NBC.
Comedy Animal Control, which had been in script-to-series consideration at Fox, is heating up for a pickup after delivering three scripts. The networks still has meteorologist comedy Cindy Snow in negotiations for a straight-to-series order.
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