CBS Entertainment chief Nina Tassler isn’t ready to abandon pilot season.
Forty-eight hours after Fox entertainment chairman Kevin Reilly rocked the TV community with the announcement that his network would not be partaking in the age-old pilot season tradition, Tassler suggested her network wouldn’t be following suit.
“Pilot season isn’t perfect, and it certainly is a very difficult time,” she told a room full of reporters gathered for the Television Critics Association’s semi-annual Press tour Wednesday, before adding: “But pilot season does work for us.”
She pointed to a recent Forbes article, which looked at the creative adrenaline that can come out of a compressed –and thus high-pressure-- time period like pilot season. “It’s frustrating but also it’s exciting,” she said of the arms race for talent, pointing to two key examples of juggernauts, CSI and The Big Bang Theory, born out of that pressure cooker environment. The former was an 11th hour order, which forced a team and script to come together and deliver a hit show, while the latter required a reshoot that added star Kaley Cuoco.
“I think you can’t make these broad generalizations,” she concluded, noting that Reilly likely was making a decision that made sense for his needs and the needs of his company. Which isn’t to say Tassler isn’t focused on innovative financial models (see Under the Dome) or year-round programming (Battle Creek).
More to come...
