Lost and Desperate Housewives were risky as well, think someone at ABC got fired for ordering such an expensive pilot, I think House was risky as the main character is unlikeable and rude, American Idol I think was rejected by everyone until Lis Murdoch persuades her father to pick it up for a summer run as she'd watched the orginal in the UK, I imagine DWTS was seen as a risk given it was ballroom dancing but look at it now.

Some formats on paper just dont seem like good ideas, like DoI which IIRC people thought would flop as ITV1 had a bad run with celebrity shows like Celebrity Love Island and Celebrity Wrestling, WWTBAM on paper probably sounded like a money losing show and Deal or No Deal as well, 22 boxes, no questions except one probably to a commisioner sounded crazy.

some US shows of course are like Life On Mars, and have been in developments for years at different channels, ABC passed on CSI at one point, and Desperate Housewives was offered to ITV.

CSI is massive and CBS would be unrecognisable without it, and Desperate Housewives was also successful. Not sure how long Lost was in development.

Richard Bacon has a story about DWTS, it was rejected by ABC, but then given a second chance and for some reason he was around and gave his opinion (or something I forget) but it was pitched to ABC twice, obviously they didnt like it the first time.

BBC One isn't exactly short on dramas or documentaries that could run in January 2013. I'm surprised BBC One dont have more 90 minutes crime dramas like George Gently or Sherlock, there are plenty of detective novels which are popular which haven't been adapted or even invent their own.

Bosom Buddies was never that successful. The only reason anyone remembers it is because of Tom Hanks. But in its defence it wasn't anywhere near as bad or offensive as Work It which just gets everything wrong.

With most new shows now well entrenched and just a few midseason arrivals still due, attention in the US now turns to pilot season. Deadline have some predictions for how many pilots there will be...

http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/pilo...record-volume/

No surprises that ABC and NBC will order the most. NBC have already ordered 9 and will likely end up with more than 20 pilots (half drama, half comedy). Both so far have got into business with some big names. NBC with Dick Wolf (Law & Order), Ryan Murphy (Glee, Nip/Tuck, American Horror Story) and JJ Abrams (Lost, Alias, Fringe, Person of Interest) and ABC once again developing with Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice) and also Shawn Ryan (The Shield).

CBS don't have as many - apparently 7-9 pilots for comedy and the same for drama. Competition among CBS dramas, both on air and in development, will be particularly fierce. Especially if they expand the Thursday comedy block into the 9pm hour.

FOX might just have 5 dramas (8-10 comedies) which seems pretty light considering they have some serious headaches in that department.

CW going for a record number (up to 8 dramas) but perhaps morei interestingly looking at comedy again and they might make some pilot orders in that genre. Much needed as they're down 22% y-o-y.


Last week Pretty Little Liars had 2.95m viewers on Monday and a 1.3 rating with adults 18-49 which even beat The Vampire Diaries (2.86m/1.3). I'd not be surprised if ABC Family has a higher average audience & A18-49 rating across the year.

true, but it did run for 2 series (37 episodes in all), so it was not a total flop.

CSI was developed by Jerry Bruckheimer and Anthony Zuiker and was rejected by ABC who were offered to produce it until CBS came along as they had a play or pay contract with William Peterson who was interested in it so they commisioned a pilot. It was IIRC scheduled on Fridays after The Fugitive but ended up outrating it.

CSI was different because it was about forensics which isn't exactly exciting but somehow they made it work.

Here's the press release from ITV on the new Andrew Lloyd Webber show.

Major commission for ITV Studios - Superstar

I'm guessing a summer launch in June or July, it needs to finish before The X Factor starts, don't think it can avoid the Olympics unless they schedule the live shows after it.

I have vague memories of them saying they wanted to make less crime drama and focus on investing in different genres that are currently under represented on British television which seems fair. Personally I'm more surprised that ITV aren't adapting more crime novels given that they tend to work relatively well for them when they do. Although I suppose they did increase their quota last year.


It was a little more complicated than that. ABC's ratings were largely in the toilet before Desperate Housewives, Lost, Grey's Anatomy and then Dancing with the Stars arrived (people forget those shows all arrived on ABC basically one after the other it really was an incredible run for them) so understandably Disney bulked at the head of the network spending $14 million on a pilot for a show about a plane crash. I suspect they were also concerned how much a series would cost if the pilot was costing them that much and after you've spent $14 million on a pilot you pretty much have to pick it up.


They might have headaches but they also have very little space.

Monday – Alcatraz and Touch are still in contention for next year (and technically I suppose Terra Nova is although it seems unlikely). I suspect House is done. At worst Fox has two hours to fill here but I suspect it'll be one with either of Alcatraz or Touch being renewed. My money would be on Touch.
Tuesday – Glee and comedies. My guess is a new comedy will replace Raising Hope.
Wednesday – The X Factor and maybe a new comedy.
Thursday – The X Factor and then either Bones or a new drama. I suppose maybe The Finder is in contention as well but given how it debuted that seems unlikely.
Friday – Reality. Maybe Bones if they don't have an open slot for it on Monday or Thursday. Fringe looks like its finally dead.
Saturday – Repeats.
Sunday – Animation.

They have 2 maybe 3 new drama slots to play with now that The X Factor is dominating their Fall schedule and Idol their midseason schedule. My guess is they pick up 3 or 4 new dramas at most.


Ah The Fugitive. That's one of the shows that was supposed to be a sure fire unstoppable hit.

It sounds like it could be a decent entertainment format for ITV's summer schedule but it will find it tough facing the Olympics.

I don't have visions of this working well. I know the Lloyd Webber shows saw success on BBC1 but I'm not convinced that's going to translate to ITV quite so well. I foresee another Grease is the Word.

Even people who liked it were wrong! I loved the pilot but thought it had the potential to be a total flop in the fall - especially as the premiere numbers out of American Idol weren't great at the time.


Lloyd Braun was the executive fired from ABC before the pilot aired. Of course he had also ordered Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy but didn't last long enough to enjoy the rewards!

I think American Idol was put to ABC twice - so they could have had CSI and Idol on their network! Although Simon Cowell said that they sold it to ITV in 2 minutes.

IIRC, The Office was a bit out of place at the time. And initial ratings weren't particularly good but Kevin Reilly (then running NBC for Jeff Zucker) stuck with it.

GITW didn't work for many reasons, the panel for one was terrible, apart from David Ian, neither Sinnita and David Gest know anything about musical theatre, they also did the voting on a couples rather than individuals which they changed midway as you ended up losing good performers.

I still the format has legs but there isn't many iconic musical roles that can be cast as most are difficult sings. I know in Holland, they did shows finding Evita, Mary Poppins and Tarzan and Jane.

The Office survived intially not because of the critical acclaim but also NBC didn't exactly have hits, had Steve Carrell not been in the 40 Year Old Virgin, it would have been axed after season 2. Think My Name is Earl helped it too.

Pop Idol was an easier sell in the UK because of the success of Popstars a show that didn't have anywhere near as much success in the US as it did in the UK (and elsewhere in the world).


Yeah the first season of The Office did not go down well. Understandably so it was pretty bad. I think it was probably saved by relatively low production costs and the other developing problems at NBC. And as noted above 40 Year Old Virgin didn't hurt either.

In Holland the show also transferred to a commercial broadcaster this year and completely bombed - ITV take note.

Actually, the first series of Outnumbered was screened in a10.35 slot - three episodes per week for a fortnight.

ITV's Christmas Text Santa raised £4,120,000 for charity according to The Sun

The ultimate BBC1 film used to be Deep Impact, which I remember they first showed in January 2001 at 8pm on a Tuesday, then nine months later showed it in exactly the same slot, then new months later showed it in exactly the same slot again.

Of course in the last FA Cup weekend BBC1 showed Die Hard With A Vengeance instead of Match of the Day, which is even older. This is a bit dull but I remember the premiere of that was on ITV in the autumn of 1998 and it was the last film they flung around the news in the original run of News at Ten. I distinctly remember it because at the time I was telling everyone on forums - in the days long before this thread - how ITV would have trouble finding enough stuff to run before the 11pm news and citing that as an example because it was longer than two hours. Then when the 11pm news started, in the autumn of 1999 they showed films every Friday at 9pm, I think including Die Hard With A Vengeance, and to make them fit they chopped about twenty minutes out of all of them.


As I said the other week, nobody's excited about seeing another Lenny Henry show. I was interested in seeing Jasper and Griff because I have some affection for them because Jasper Carrott and Smith and Jones were the first grown-up comedy shows I was allowed to stay up and watch, but as you say, there isn't the obvious hook there was with The One Ronnie.

As for pre-watershed comedy, the fact is there's not much scope for anything pre-watershed with the soaps crowding it all out - Friday 8.30 used to be a cushy slot for a sitcom but Corrie took that, and in the nineties Monday 8.30 was fantastic because it was opposite World In Action. In addition hardly any writers want to write pre-watershed stuff, which is a shame when you consider that the US series that get the most praise from comedy writers - The Simpsons is the best example, and also Seinfeld - are resolutely mainstream and in the middle of primetime.

Ricky Gervais always said he wanted to be one million people's favourite show, not eight million people's eighth favourite show, but you'd think some people would want to try for a wider audience. I know Armando Iannucci, when he was at the Beeb, tried to encourage more people to write for BBC1.


Hmm, maybe - it always used to be that it was made by the comedy department so there shouldn't be too much of a clash with Sherlock. The last one wasn't very good, though, which was a shame.

Perhaps they should have repeated the original Fugitive which (I think) was on ABC and was indeed a sure fire unstoppable hit

15 Kids and Counting launches with 3.2m (inc +1)

Should that not be 30 Kids if you are including +1?

From Attentional:

MasterChef (BBC1): 4.8m (19.7%)
15 Kids and Counting (C4): 2.9m (12%) , +1: 339,600 (1.8%)
Coming Out Dairies (BBC3): 377,700 (1.6%)