Mr Zucker has just delivered some of NBC U's best results ever. Their revenue went up 10% for the quarter the strike started in. Overall business under his rein this year was 6% profit gain to $3.1 billion. Yes, $3.1 BILLION. Profit.

Additionally, General Electric praised Zucker for his handling of the writers' strike (translation: well done for fucking them over for our $$$) and said they are preparing for the actors strike, too.

The harsh reality of this strike is that I think the corps are going to profit from it big time. In TVland. Companies this size with an audience this stupid represents a real problem for unions.

Would it be a terrible thing for them to stop doing this pilot season thing? It seems like such a crappy thing to do - get people's hopes up and then not make the damn show. Or - let them make a few episodes and then cancel the show. Would this change mean that people got to make a whole season of their show for sure?

(Sorry if I've not quite wrapped my head round how it works - it doesn't work that way in the UK, you see.)

6% gain is in no way impressive or could have possibly been their target and I would love to see what the revenue was to create that profit. The story is in the details, Kevin, not the headlines.

Would it be a terrible thing for them to stop doing this pilot season thing?

A lot of people get a lot of work during pilot season with no expectations of ever actually having a show picked up. It would suck for them to lose the income. I can't completely disagree that it's a very inefficient system though. A more careful and considered pre-pilot process could boost the efficiency, but I would think there'd need to be much more network support and nurturing for new shows than has been the case in quite some time for that to work.

So his plan for developing actual air-worthy shows without pilot season is to wave a magic wand and make sure that whatever percentage of new product that goes unproduced is only the stuff that wouldn't turn out to be profitable?

A lot of people get a lot of work during pilot season with no expectations of ever actually having a show picked up.

Yeah, an actor could almost get by doing the right pilots, as long as they got a pilot every year. But most of them show up for more than that.

I'd be curious to see the alternative to pilot season--in the UK the seasons are shorter, so the investment risk is different.

I think it's high time we moved away from the "season" more towards shorter series with tighter arcs that each premiere at different points in the year. But wouldn't you still need to produce pilots?

Tim signed some scripts for Cash for the Crew.

That was extra cool to personalize them. Allyson and Kristen, you two are the bestest for raising money and awareness. It's not a truck load of pencils, but it's still a darn fine idea.

cereal

An article on how soap operas are operating during the strike.

And even in this article Days slips to the bottom of the list. I am so going to need more therapy when that gets cancelled. That show tied generations of my family together. Even if I don't watch it, I like knowing it's there.

The idea of doing away with pilot season has been floating around for a while. I don't think it's all that terrible. Fewer shows get shot, but if they get that far they're going to air. It also means that if you want to take more than one episode to set up your story, you can. Pilots tend to suck because they have the burden of selling the show to both the network and the audience.

Tim signed some scripts for Cash for the Crew.