Raw deals: ABC like dailies show

By Nellie Andreeva

Feb 8, 2008, ET

STRIKE ZONE: Latest news and updates

Add series pickups based on dailies to the list of tweaks to the pilot season this year imposed by the prolonged writers strike. In order to be able to present its fall schedule to advertisers in May, ABC is considering ordering some of their new series based on raw footage from the shooting of the pilots.

Because of what is expected to be a truncated pilot season following the strike, some pilots won't be finished until the end of May or even later. That is one reason why CBS and the CW are opting to do a lot more presentations in lieu of full-blown pilots this year, especially on the drama side.

In addition to the pickup-off-dailies model, ABC also is said to be exploring forgoing pilots and ordering some projects straight to series, a strategy that has been actively pursued by NBC. ABC made the most drastic strike-related development cuts of all nets, terminating about one-third of its scripts.

Raw deals: ABC like dailies show

By Nellie Andreeva

Feb 8, 2008, ET