I got to sit in on a pitch with my boss and some writers today to sell a show to NBC, and we were going in pretty relaxed because it felt kind of like a long-shot. NBC as a network may not like this particular kind of material (it’s sci-fi adjacent), plus it may be a little grittier than network typically is, but we go the meeting and wanted to make the connection. Unexpectedly, someone from Peacock also joined the pitch as they’ve just re-organized the company, and suddenly our pitch seemed much more viable. It’s definitely the kind of show that you could see on Peacock.
It’s making me think about pitching television now as such a broad task: as studios are merging together and networks are creating their own studios to produce content, the streaming wars are really on. Nowadays you’re not pitching just to one channel, but various brands within a conglomerate that all have different audiences, tastes, and mandates.
It’s really interesting, and a bit of a double-edged sword, but overall I think a really positive thing. With these executives having more power and being in the room on behalf of several outlets, it becomes an opportunity to do an excellent job with you story and characters, and let them decide where the show fits best. As long as you impress the people that you’re pitching to, and your show is in their taste, they can find a mandate or home that it can live in.
Where it gets a bit tricky is comparing to their vast catalogue of other programming. For example, for NBC we looked at their other development projects (see: Futon Critic as an amazing resource), and made sure to include comps and differentiators for them to understand how it fits into their larger slate. Since Peacock jumped in, we did not look at their recent buys, so flew a bit blind there. With a few people having a HUGE library of shows in development and on air, it becomes a more daunting task to research all of these shows and figure out how to best position your pitch as a tailored project.
That being said, there are so many outlets available now. This is probably our 5th or 6th pitch for this particular show, and there are big ones coming up soon like Prime and Paramount+. Even with the vast amount content that exists out in the world today, we are optimistic we will be able to find a great place for our show to live.
