Paramount, decided to hold another round of pilot screenings in the fall (see related story on page 54). Speaking to journalists at the L.A.- based TV Critics Association event over the summer, Fox TV president of Entertainment Kevin Reilly said, “We’ll screen at least eight things in December [for advertisers] and coming out of that, I’d expect a couple of early series orders and a couple of things to begin queuing up. That’s going to be the next step towards programming year-round, which we have been experimenting with for some time.” He said the strike forced Fox to rethink its development strategy. “For us, it was an opportunity to finally kind of force the hand of something that we were trying to evolve towards anyway,” he said. “We’re taking a screening room for three days at MIPCOM to screen pilot episodes for people who want to see them,” said Twentieth Century Fox’s Marion Edwards. “This is the first time we’ve ever done that. But it was necessary given that we didn’t have the opportunity to do so at the L.A. Screenings.” Edwards also added that the entire industry has been “waiting to exhale” since the start of the writers’ strike last year, but that no one will be able to breathe easy until the threat of another strike — this time from the Screen Actors Guild (or SAG) — has been averted. “As soon as the Actors Guild reaches an agreement, we’ll be able to return to a normal pattern,” she said. But when or if that will happen remains unclear. SAG’s contract expired in June, but the organization, never one to pass up an opportunity for infighting, has yet to decide on a new agreement. Some studios are moving up production on some series and films, while others are taking a wait-and-see approach. “I hate to even think about a SAG strike,” said Edwards. “Not only for the disruption of my own business, but for all those people who won’t get paid if they won’t work. The industry will not benefit from another strike.” While talk of a possible SAG work stoppage has been on many minds, most people were still focused on the new TV season. At its upfront presentation in May, the CW network picked up just three new shows ( Privileged, Stylista and an all-new 90210), with president of Entertainment Dawn Ostroff saying, “We are zeroed in on our target demo of young women 18-34 with both new and returning series… We’re confident that the quality of our shows for the fall season will make The CW the destination for young women.” But the netlet is speeding up its development cycle so as to shoot a number of pilots this fall… and possibly launch its 2009 season as early as next July instead of the traditional September. “The idea is to get out of the fray and be able to bring viewers where there’s not as much competition,” Ostroff told reporters at the TV Critics Association event. While in the past, networks have launched certain series a month or two before the time-honored Studios, at the time of the announcement in April. “So we’re giving them the chance now to partner with us, start integrating with our shows from the very beginning and map out their strategies a full year into the future. It’s an innovative way to introduce an innovative schedule.” A number of NBC’s competitors scoffed at the idea that they were doing anything particularly ground-breaking, with Fox’s Preston Beckman, evp, Strategic Program Planning and Research, telling the Washington Post that NBC Universal president and CEO Jeff Zucker “went out… and made proclamations and the other networks shrugged.” Regardless of whether or not NBC is proving itself a pioneer, advanced buzz for some of its shows, specifically Crusoe , from the U.K.’s Power, was overwhelmingly positive. And according to Chris Philip, president, Worldwide Sales, that can only mean good things for the indie company. “It’s an enormous accomplishment for us to have gotten a scripted show on TV in the U.S.,” he said. “When we’re sitting at a table with clients and we tell them that we also have a U.S. network show, that gets their attention.” In fact, Power has already pre-sold the series in over 43 markets, including Canal Plus in France, Channel Nine in Australia and TV2 in Hungary. Whatever happens, the upcoming 2008-2009 U.S. TV season should deliver a number of midseason surprises, and offer some new shows that might have otherwise been cancelled early the chance to find an audience and blossom. It seems that despite the seemingly interminable work stoppage, Hollywood is more than capable of bouncing back. On the following page you’ll find a list of new U.S. TV pilots introduced in May, September and October. LHR V I D E O • A G E OC T O B E R 2 0 0 8 (Continued from Cover) Still Reeling From Strike 58 September start of the season, this will mark the first time that a broadcaster will launch its entire schedule that early. According to Ostroff, the CW is still figuring out just exactly how this early launch might work, including whether or not the new season should commence in July or August and whether the early start to the 20092010 season means that the season would end in April (instead of the traditional May). She also said that the CW might need more midseason series to fill in scheduling holes. At ABC’s New York upfront presentation in May, network bigwigs announced that they were picking up just two new shows for fall (drama Life on Mars and game show/reality show hybrid Opportunity Knocks ), but made it clear that although the strike forced them to think fast in order to turn things around come upfront time, the net was still looking into a number of other projects to bring to series. Though NBC recently faltered with quarterlife , its attempt at bringing a Web series to television, ABC is trying its hand at In the Motherhood, an online program that the net hopes to sculpt into a midseason comedy. The show stars The King of Queens ’ Leah Remini, actress Jenny McCarthy and E! talk show host Chelsea Handler as put-upon moms. The series, which launched on the Web in 2007, already boasts 21 million viewers, and ABC is hoping to capitalize on that popularity. At the upfronts, Stephen McPherson, ABC Entertainment’s prez said: “I’m a huge believer in the R&D of this business. The pilot process is the smartest possible investment you can make in your future” (see related comments on page 68). In late August, ABC picked up five more shows, including Castle , Cupid, The Unusuals , Better Off Tedand Single With Parents . The bigwigs at CBS also picked up two new comedies and three dramas in what can only be called the closest approximation to a normal upfront. New series included Eleventh Hour , The Mentalist , The Ex List , Worst Weekand Gary Unmarried (formerly Project Gary). The Eye network didn’t give any indication that the strike slowed it down and hasn’t yet said how it will proceed in the coming year. The folks at NBC, on the other hand, decided to change things up a bit this year, announcing its entire 52-week schedule at an early upfront presentation, including everything from midseason entries to shows that won’t air until next summer. The network also picked up shows such as comedy Kath and Kim and drama Crusoe without even having reviewed a pilot for either. “The business is changing so rapidly and our clients expect us to stay one step ahead of that change,” said Marc Graboff, co-chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Twentieth Century Fox’s Marion Edwards Dawn Ostroff at the CW upfronts “ After a 100-day Hollywood writers’ strike brought the entertainment industry to its knees, each U.S. broadcast network had to rethink the way it did business.
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