Fox's Kevin Reilly at TCA: "We Can't Be in the One Size Fits All Business"

Fox is declaring an end to its participation in the traditional pilot season AgainTen years after a previous regime of Fox Entertainment executives first attempted to steer the Titanic in a new direction and then learned that it was damn near impossible to do so Fox Entertainment Chairman Kevin Reilly yesterday declared that his network for the first time will be quotbypassingquot pilot season in 2014quotThe broadcast development and scheduling system was built for a different eraquot Reilly explained quotIt was built in a three network monopoly when we had all the talent and all of the audience It39s highly inefficientquotWe as networks will produce 80 to 100 pilots in a condensed periodquot he continued quotAfter the pilot season is over we screen them and schedule them and announce them in a compressed and crazy condensed two week period We go to the upfront Then they have six weeks to get into production and get on the air Honestly it39s nothing short of a miracle that the talent is able to produce anything of flexibility in its order patternquotCable networks are able to course correct creatively and reshoot and recastquot he said quotWhen we do that we are already driving into a time period We are behind schedule It39s big news when we shut down Every first season show whether it39s great or whether it39s in trouble needs course correction and needs further cooking I think we can create a better more talent friendly more consistently creative way to do this We have in fact been ordering series throughout the year and are currently in some stage of series production on nine projects as I sit here today That39s before I order one new pilot in this pilot seasonquotReilly noted that several of those projects are miniseries or series with smaller episode orders just like cable shows including the previously announced quotWayward Pinesquot a 10episode scripted summer series quotGracepointquot a 10episode remake of the acclaimed British series quotBroadchurchquot quotGothamquot a series that explores the early years of the young Batman and quotHieroglyphquot a 13episode adventure seriesquotOf the balance of the many scripts in the process of being read now I anticipate a few more will be ordered to some version of series or production for this cycle and then I imagine a balance of those projects will be pushed and ordered for summer or early fall production next year to be almost a full 12 months ahead of development for the following seasonquot Reilly reflected quotSo through the great efforts of my team we39ve pushed through I39m not making declarations about what anybody else should do I39m not saying what39s wrong with the industry But for Fox I think we can build a more talentfriendly way of doing this get more consistent product with more maneuverability and more scheduling and marketing flexibilityquotOne big advantage of bypassing pilot season and traditional development structures is that programming is ready to be put on a network39s schedule throughout the year quotIn this day and age we can39t be in the one size fits all businessquot Reilly said quotThere shouldn39t be a set order pattern There shouldn39t be a set time when we launch things The audience doesn39t watch midseason and fall season They don39t know about pilot season There are so many things thousands of original shows competing for their attention right now We just can39t do it all at once We started the rollout this year We are premiering 392439 one of our flagship shows in May and playing it into the summer We39re pairing it with 39Gang Related39 which is a great show We39re just going where they ain39t That is the way cable was builtquotAt one point earlier this year we were in production on 42 series at once and some of those series will be airing next summer We started way ahead of the game and that39s really what you have to do It39s not a big story for you guys when cable rolls back a premiere date There39s barely an HBO show that doesn39t reshoot half of their pilot every time And no one throws their arms up about that That39s how you make things great We want to have that same maneuvering ability We don39t want to be bound by an airdate and then find that we39re changing the wheels at 60 miles an hourquotAsked if advertisers pay less for quotsummerquot shows and if that would be a problem Reilly replied quotNo That39s not true It39s actually a fallacy that we39ve perpetuated There are advertisers that want and have money to spend during those summer months We39ve given them a robust slate of unscripted summer shows but we39ve given them virtually no quality scripted shows And to the extent we have we39ve put them on without any marketing budget and we39ve told America that they39re not important So that39s what we39re going to change We are going to have to break a habit but that39s where cable was built in the summer And there is plenty of advertising there There39s plenty of revenue to book over the summerquotContinuing with the theme of his TCA session which was that the business of television is changing in every way Reilly also declared that quotthe standard Nielsen measurement system is unfortunately outdated It is a mere fraction of the television viewing universequotHere39s what we are seeing this season VOD is up 44 percent Streaming on Hulu is up 55 percent These are for Fox shows While we are flat in the Nielsen numbers we would actually be up season to date by 8 percent once you roll up all platformsquotReilly noted that many shows on Fox are doing much better than traditional Nielsen numbers would suggest quotBrooklyn NineNinequot rises from 45 million viewers up to 85 million viewers once you roll it up he explained quotGleequot goes from 66 million to 100 million viewers quotSleepy Hollowquot goes from 10 million to 19 million viewersquotThese are not negligible sumsquot Reilly declared quotThis is television This is viewing in 2014quotCheck us out on Facebook at 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Fox's Kevin Reilly at TCA: "We Can't Be in the One Size Fits All Business"

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Fox's Kevin Reilly at TCA: "We Can't Be in the One Size Fits All Business"

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