How Does a TV Network Determine Whether a Pilot Will Turn Into a Series?

Pilot Season

Every year right around the same time (dubbed "pilot season"), all television networks commission several dozen speculative television series to go into production. These are called "pilots." A pilot is intended to be the first episode of a show should it get turned into a series. The process starts early in the year when the network looks at a variety of factors, including shows it's had success with in the past, current trends, their upcoming fall schedule and determines the kinds of shows that they feel they need to run. Pitches and presentations are then made by creators hoping for their show to get a greenlight to film a pilot.

The Selection Process

After the pilots are filmed for that particular year, each network gets their top executives together and they go through and view each individual pilot with the creator of the show. They discuss their weaknesses and strengths, as well as any ideas the creator may have for the show if it is turned into a series. Everything is considered from the intended age bracket of potential viewers to how many ads could potentially be sold for that particular show. After the creator makes one final presentation, the executives deliberate and begin to fill out their fall schedule. They look at what they specifically need as a network, but also what other networks will be programming that they will need to compete against. After the schedule is finalized by the executives at a network, the order for production is given. The pilots that were not picked up are rarely seen by anyone after that point.

Backdoor Pilots

A backdoor pilot is an interesting example. This is when, instead of filming a standard 22 or 44 minute pilot to act as a normal episode, a feature length television movie is filmed instead. This is done so that the network can still air it under the guise of a television movie should they decide not to go to series. This enables them to sell advertising time (and later potentially release it on home video) to recoup the money spent during production. Sometimes, a backdoor pilot is aired before the decision to go to series is made, and the fate of the show is decided based on the strength of the ratings for the aired feature. A recent example of this is NBC's Night Rider, which became a series after the pilot movie had solid ratings. The pilot is still considered to be the "first episode" of the series.