The Runway Series

Annual Series that reads, rates and dissects each network’s pilot pick ups before they go into production.

nbc cropA few years ago, NBC comedy was in a bad place. Though critically adored and beloved by many, flagship shows Parks & Rec and 30 Rock simply weren’t ratings juggernauts, so NBC had a choice to make: go broader with comedy development or continue to focus on smaller, quality projects. As with most things in television, the pursuit of money won out.

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The end of pilot season is always a little bittersweet. On the one hand, we’ll get to see the visions of the writers come to life, with a select few making it to series. On the other hand, we have to wait another nine months for a new crop of pilot scripts to be released to the world. It’s time to recap this year’s 2016 network pilot season.

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The CW is simply not a network that hosts “comedies” in the traditional, half-hour sense, which is why we’re not providing a breakdown of their 2016 pilots in the same way we’ve been doing for the rest of the networks. That said, a lack of sitcoms doesn’t mean that The CW is without comedy.