Fox Ends Pilot Season. What Took So Long?

Yesterday, Fox Chairman Kevin Reilly announced that the network was no longer going to participate in pilot season, the traditional springtime scramble during which TV networks produce dozens of pilot episodes of shows that may or may not pan out. Instead, Reilly said in an executive session, the network would pick up pilots and launch new shows throughout the year. He also suggested that the network would be more selective in the pilots it picks up and more likely to commit to entire seasons of the pilots it does produce.

The announcement was a long time coming, and marks an attempt to align the way television is made with the way it is increasingly consumed. Like political consultants, schoolteachers, and farmers, the people who make television shows have always been seasonal workers. After pilot season the networks would ruthlessly cull, signing on to only a few of the shows that they had made pilots for, then presenting their lineups to advertisers in May at the upfronts. Production began over the summer, during which time audiences watched reruns. The new shows would arrive on TV in the fall.