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Deadline Article: Network Ownership Kills Pilot Orders

Feb 12, 2016

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Thanks to splendidtom for the heads up.

Following game-changing upfronts dominated by pickups and renewals favoring owned and co-owned series, the shift carried over to pilot season, with networks picking up projects from their sister studios and co-productions dominating orders from outside studios.

The new paradigm led to a dramatic showdown between CBS and 20th Century Fox TV that resulted in the demise of a project that had been quietly picked up to pilot: a crime drama from Burn Notice creator Matt Nix and Black Box creator Amy Holden Jones.

I’ve learned that the project, which originally had a put pilot commitment backed by a large penalty, was ordered to pilot Tuesday contingent on 20th TV agreeing on co-production with CBS TV Studios. While the two sides had already laid the groundwork with a general consensus for a co-production, I hear they ultimately could not reach an agreement on some issues, and the project, which had been gearing up for pre-production, is now dead. Its demise underscores the treacherous waters of the new media landscape where program ownership and digital rights have become more important than ever.