The Runway Series

I’ll give this to CBS: they are completely unapologetic. People say their shows are too white, don’t have enough female leads, that their dramas are too procedural, that their comedies are hacky. If you go purely by Nielsen ratings, I guess they’ve done OK with that strategy to date.

ABC probably had the most interesting pilot season among the networks. Unlike the competition, they filmed a pretty healthy number of pilots and picked up a pretty large percentage to series, granted many will be mid-season premieres.

Like NBC, Fox didn’t pick up as many pilots this year. They did, however, pick up a pretty large percentage of those pilots to series, particularly on the drama side. Does that mean they’re giving up on comedy? Not really.

It was a weird pilot season. No network embodied that statement more than NBC. The craziness in a nutshell: the most coveted timeslot in all of television, between Will & Grace and This is Us, is going to sophomore series Great News, whose renewal was iffy as recently as two weeks ago.

Last year’s crop of CBS pilots were lackluster, and of those ordered to series, only Bull and MacGyver have been renewed so far. With Doubt already canceled, and Training Day and Pure Genius unlikely to be renewed, CBS has plenty of room on its fall schedule.

This season has a lot of pilots shot, but not a lot of schedule room. How these pilots come in may determine the fate of 2 Broke Girls and The Great Indoors. Let’s see if the network will fare better than last season.

New ABC Network president Channing Dungey had an important decision last year: greenlight more family comedies or add other types of comedy to their strong lineup. She went with a bit of both and now they are bursting at the seams with half-hours.

Last year, Fox was all about IP and filling a gaping, American Idol-sized hole. Its development was all over the place. This year, much like NBC, Fox seems to have found its groove as well.

Fox has recently taken a cautious approach to comedy development, but now that New Girl is likely canceled, and Last Man on Earth may be winding down soon, Fox has to get a bit more aggressive.

A 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.

With last year’s pilots Frequency and No Tomorrow both unlikely to see renewals, The CW is looking for a big hit that isn’t attached to the DC universe and can add to the critical clout they’ve gained with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Jane the Virgin. See what’s next for the CW in our preview of their 2017 drama pilots.

The Tracking Board presents the 4th annual edition of The Runway! The premise is simple: we read, review and prognosticate on the future of every single network show picked up to pilot. So fasten your seatbelts, because pilot season is about to take off.

In the midst of this week’s network upfronts, The Runway contributors Andrew Woodberry and Ashish Mehta discuss what got picked up, what didn’t, and why. On Thursday, The CW delivered the last of the network upfront presentations, celebrating the arrival of Supergirl as well as a few new series to the fall schedule.

In the midst of this week’s network upfronts, The Runway contributors Andrew Woodberry and Ashish Mehta discuss what got picked up, what didn’t, and why. On Wednesday, it was The Eye’s turn to present their upcoming schedule to Madison Avenue and present the latest trailers for the new series.

In the midst of this week’s network upfronts, The Runway contributors Andrew Woodberry and Ashish Mehta discuss what got picked up, what didn’t, and why. On Tuesday, ABC revealed a few sneak peaks of some of the shows that will hit the Alphabet in the fall.

In the midst of this week’s network upfronts, The Runway contributors Andrew Woodberry and Ashish Mehta discuss what got picked up, what didn’t, and why. On Monday, Fox followed up NBC with its upfront presentation, unveiling nearly a dozen new shows that will be joining the network’s schedule.

In the midst of this week’s network upfronts, The Runway contributors Andrew Woodberry and Ashish Mehta discuss what got picked up, what didn’t, and why. On Monday, NBC held its upfront presentation, so how is The Peacock’s fall schedule shaping up?

Drama trends have been pretty consistent across the development and pilot seasons: remakes, soaps, and vertical integration. Underlying these, is the most consistent trend of them all: safety. Let’s get into our recap of the 2016 network drama pilots.

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.

Fox has boosted development to cover American Idol’s exit and fill nearly 40 hours or programming. So this year’s order of 11 pilots is up from last year’s 6. That said, Fox isn’t really looking to take risks. Let’s take a look at what’s in the works in our preview of Fox’s Drama Pilots.

After approximately 148 years on air, the fat lady has finally sung for American Idol, leaving a giant gaping 2-hour hole in Fox’s weekly schedule. This could be a boon for comedy showrunners, drama showrunners, or both. Let’s find out what’s in the pipeline with our preview of Fox’s 2016 Comedy Pilots.

Arrow and The Flash are the CW’s biggest ratings successes, with the latter being the most-watched show in the CW’s history. Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend have won the network some well-deserved critical attention. See what’s next for the CW in our preview of their 2016 Drama pilots.

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.

Apart from NBC’s discernible desire for a primetime soap, it’s difficult to figure out what the network is looking for. Is there a method to The Peacock’s madness? Let’s find out in our complete preview of the 2016 NBC Drama pilots.

NBC Comedy in the early 2010’s was like The Titanic. Plenty of people were yelling “Iceberg right ahead!” It takes time to turn a boat around, as it took some time for NBC to finally admit that they should be going mainly after broad comedies. Let’s see where the Peacock stands in our preview of NBC Comedy pilots.

CBS feels like it’s still in transition. Considering the overall grim landscape of year-on-year ratings decline, Les Moonves seems relatively happy with his picks last season, leaving room for maybe 3 more fall dramas this time around.Get the complete breakdown in our CBS Drama pilots preview.

CBS took the unusual step last week of renewing 11 returning series, without addressing the fate of any freshman series. What does that tell us? It might indicate they’re waiting to get a feel for this year’s crop of pilots. Get the complete breakdown in our CBS Comedy pilots preview.

ABC has eleven dramas in contention, with another one already picked up to series. That’s a lot. Get the complete breakdown in our ABC Drama pilots preview.

With Paul Lee out at ABC, you’d expect their comedy lineup to be in shambles. That’s actually not the case though. See why in our ABC Comedy pilot season preview.

The Tracking Board presents the 3rd annual edition of The Runway! The premise is simple: we read, review and prognosticate on the future of every single network show picked up to pilot. So fasten your seatbelts, because pilot season is about to take off.