A Slow-Motion Eulogy for the TV Industry

Now in short supply: Shows that involve real sets being built, fully staffed writers rooms, series regulars, dozens of recurring and guest roles and attention spent on production value. Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text The mini-revival of TV’s pilot season this year has been an unexpected surprise — and also a bittersweet one. NBC has ordered eight pilots in the past two months, more than double the number of pilots it picked up last year — and more than the total of seven across all broadcast nets during the 2025 development cycle. ABC and CBS have two pilots each, bringing the total to 12. But the wider lens is more bleak: In 2019, networks ordered 66 pilots, which at that time was the fewest in at least seven years. Since then, a number of factors — a switch to other development models in search of more efficiency, COVID, and aftereffects of the 2023 strikes among them — combined to push the number of network pilots down each year to a low of just five in 2024. Fox and The CW have all but abandoned pilots in favor of script-to-series or straight-to-series pickups, while other networks have leaned on those models along with development writers rooms. Related Stories Business Councilmember's Push to Improve L.A. Filming Conditions Passes Latest Hurdle: "We Can't Lose Any More Time" Movies Salma Hayek, Mexican President Back New 30 Percent Film Tax Incentive The mini-revival of pilot season represents a small beam of optimism for TV as we used to know it. There are chances for writers, actors and crew members to secure work for at least a little while, and that executives are rediscovering that some supposedly outmoded ways of making television can still be good, actually. There’s also a heavy dose of nostalgia involved. The old model of network pilot season was terribly inefficient from a business standpoint. Ordering hundreds of scripts that turned into dozens of pilots, all cast and filmed in a frenzied three- to four-month window, out of which maybe 20 or so series would result, was not a way to mind the bottom line. But it was also exciting. Soundstages in Los Angeles would be busy, thousands of people would be working in those few months early in the year, producing shows that ranged from all-time classics to all-time blunders. Even though most of them never made it onto a schedule, a noble failure or poorly testing high concept could stick in a network executive or showrunner’s mind, and from that an actor or writer or crew member might find work on a show that did make it through the process. That kind of excitement is in much shorter supply now. In fact, as a reporter covering the industry, the past couple of years have increasingly felt like I’m writing a slow-moving, multi-part obituary for television as most of us knew it. The television that involves real sets being built, fully staffed writers rooms, series regulars, dozens of recurring and guest roles, attention spent on production value handled by below-the-line pros and an audience of millions of viewers who regularly tune in on a weekly basis. Material for that obit has been rolling in of late. First came CBS’ “financial decision” last summer to cancel The Late Show — ending not just Stephen Colbert’s 11-season run as host but the entire 33-year franchise started by David Letterman. (Though given that the FCC approved Paramount’s merger with Skydance shortly afterward, finances were almost certainly a factor — just not in the way the new ownership team spun the decision. “How many of you watch late-night on any network today? Raise your hand,” Paramount’s new COO Andy Gordon dared reporters the week the Skydance team arrived last August.) Earlier this month, the producers of Kelly Clarkson’s and Sherri Shepherd’s daytime talk shows said they would end after this season, leaving only a handful of such shows still kicking. Daytime and late night, for sure, have been withering faster than other aspects of the traditional TV business. But it wasn’t that long ago that daytime syndication appeared to be on the upswing. The Kelly Clarkson Show was one of seven new syndicated shows that premiered in the fall of 2019 in what was the biggest year for new launches since Oprah Winfrey left the daytime stage in 2011. Sherri arose in 2022 after Shepherd ably filled in for Wendy Williams at the end of that show’s run. Both shows performed reasonably well for much of their time on air, but Clarkson’s show now averages about 1.2 million viewers per day, and Shepherd’s is usually under a million — numbers that make the economics of a fully produced daytime show hard to square. What will replace the Clarkson and Shepherd shows, and Late Night, remains to be seen. If the local stations that will be buying programs to fill those hours follow the current trend, though, i