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To pilot or not to pilot has been a question broadcast networks have been asking themselves for more than a decade and are increasingly answering ‘no’ to, especially when it comes to the traditional pilot season in the months leading to the May upfronts. We haven’t gotten a single pilot order in 2025 so far. While that is about to change with a handful of orders coming up, the pilot drought has been persistent amid an industry contraction and linear viewing decline, especially as the networks are still dealing with the backlog caused by strike-related delays.
Broadcasters these days often opt for economically efficient planted spinoffs that shoot as regular episodes of existing drama and comedy series or for development rooms and straight-to-series orders, primarily on the drama side. That is ironic because the biggest new drama hits of the last two seasons, CBS‘ Tracker and Matlock and ABC‘s High Potential, all originated as standalone pilots.
Here are where the Big 4 broadcast networks stand at what would’ve been the halfway mark of pilot season.
ABC already has picked up a new scripted series for next season, spinoff 9-1-1: Nashville. That may be it for the fall but not for the entire 2025-26. I hear the network will likely order 1-3 pilots in March-April for next midseason. It is the route ABC took with the Tim Allen comedy Shifting Gears, which received a pilot order last March, filmed in early summer and eventually went to series, which debuted in January. Another successful midseason entry, drama Will Trent, followed a similar trajectory as ABC had been tuning up its “second cycle” strategy, piloting projects outside of the traditional pilot window for midseason consideration.
With ABC’s scripted lineup performing well and most current series expected to join recently renewed High Potential and Abbott Elementary with pickups over the next month or so, there is no real urgency to get new scripted series ready for fall. Some of the scripts believed to be in midseason 2026 consideration include RJ Decker, a drama from Elementary creator Rob Doherty based on Carl Hiaasen’s book, as well as comedies Friends & Family, starring Cobie Smulders and written by Morgan Murphy; The Sandwich, written by and starring Jessica St. Clair & Kyle Bornheimer; and Sherry Bilsing Graham and Ellen Kreamer’s Sisters-In-Law.
Leaning into the long-term development strategy the network introduced last season, CBS already has two new scripted series for 2025-26, Fire Country spinoff Sheriff Country, starring Morena Baccarin, and Blue Bloods universe drama Boston Blue, starring Donnie Wahlberg.
The network also has the only broadcast pilots so far targeting 2025-26. That includes two drama planted spinoffs, from FBI (titled FBI CIA) and The Equalizer, and three comedy pilots, the single-camera DMV, which was shot off-cycle, the multi-camera Zarna as well as The Neighborhood planted spinoff.
By current broadcast standards, this is considered a full pilot slate. Add to that the fact that once again, CBS’ schedule is delivering with no obvious holes to fill, and the network doesn’t have a whole lot of needs.
There had been two drama scripts heating up, the Boston cop family show Jamaica Plain by Brandon Sonnier & Brandon Margolis and Robert King and Michelle King’s Silicon Valley-set legal one-hour Cupertino. As Deadline reported last month, the former became Boston Blue, landing a series order from the network. The Cupertino script and in and well received, I hear. But, with the pipeline pretty full at the moment, no one is in a rush, with the project, bought last August, remaining on a priority development track while the Kings work on their existing series through the CBS Studios overall deal, CBS’ Elsbeth, which was just renewed for a third season, and the upcoming Paramount+ drama Happy Face.
Things are similar on the comedy side. Ghosts showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman are just now starting a development room for their vampire comedy Eternally Yours, which was commissioned last August, after the duo recently wrapped work on Season 4 of Ghosts. (After the room is done, they will return to their duties on Ghosts, which was recently renewed for two more seasons.)
There are promising signs for DMV, written by Dana Klein. I hear the pilot, starring Colin From Accounts‘ Harriet Dyer and SNL alum Tim Meadows, tested well and the network has ordered a backup script.
Additionally, there has been a positive development for CBS’ other standalone comedy pilot, multi-cam sitcom Zarna, headlined by comedian Zarna Garg. Ahead of its taping later this month, the project also has received a backup script order.
That said, CBS for the second year in a row is not expected to order pilots during the traditional January-March pilot pickup window, with new development room orders also not likely before the upfronts, which is also when the network is expected to get a new owner as Skydance’s acquisition of CBS parent Paramount Global is now looking to close in the first half of 2025. Depending on the exact timing, the new Paramount bosses may have a final say on CBS’ 2025-26 plans.
Fox, whose flagship drama series 9-1-1: Lone Star ended its run this season, has already renewed two of its three freshman 2024-25 dramas for 2025-26, breakout Doc starring Molly Parker, and crime show Murder In A Small Town, done under the network’s international content strategy.
The network, which pulled away from pilots during the pandemic in a development strategy shift, is looking to pick up two more dramas straight-to-series by the upfronts, sources said. Contenders include two projects from Burn Notice creator Matt Nix under his direct deal with the network. One is a script by him, titled State Patrol, that has been in contention since the last cycle. Additionally, Nix has come onboard Fox’s Baywatch reboot and is doing rewrites to the high-profile title, I hear. Also believed to be in the running are Memory of a Killer from writers Ed Whitmore and Tracey Malone, Liz Tuccillo’s Doc Martin and DEA, written by former 24 star Carlos Bernard.
It is TBD whether Fox would be ordering a new live-action comedy series for next season; the decision may depend on how new midseason entry Going Dutch performs in the coming weeks paired with anchor Animal Control. Should the network opt for a series order, scripts under considerations are said to include Bashir Salahuddin and Diallo Riddle’s post office comedy First Class Friends; Casey Wilson’s Daddio based on her short, which she is writing and headlining; Thunderkacks, written by Chad Mountain and headlined by Oliver Hudson and Scott MacArthur, and a half-hour with Jim Belushi.
In part because it held back new series from premiering during the strike-impacted 2023-24 season, NBC is introducing the most freshman scripted series of any broadcast network this season, four dramas, Brilliant Minds, Suits: LA, Grosse Pointe Garden Society and The Hunting Party, and two comedies, St. Denis Medical and Happy’s Place, with a whopping three of the dramas, Suits: LA, Grosse Pointe and The Hunting Party, debuting in midseason.
With so many new shows being added as NBC is about to lose a night of entertainment programming to NBA basketball for most of the season starting next fall, the network is not expected to pick up any drama pilots for fall 2025 consideration. There are projects being bandied about from The Hunting Party creator JJ. Bailey, The Brave creator Dean Georgaris and presidential assassination thriller Sky On Fire from Emilio Ortega Aldrich, Jake Coburn and Julie Plec, though sources stress that NBC higher-ups are yet to review drama scripts for greenlight consideration, a process that may take a little longer this year as NBCUniversal recently restructured its TV and streaming programming operations, with Universal Studio Group’s Pearlena Igbokwe adding NBC Entertainment oversight.
While both of NBC’s new comedy series this season, St. Denis Medical and Happy’s Place, have worked and already have been renewed for next season, the network is not done in the half-hour space. A comedy project that has big names with NBC history attached in front and behind the camera has been heating up for a pilot order expected this week, as soon as today.
