My Spring Sellers’ Guide has covered the shows HBO and HBO Max, Paramount+ and CBS, Netflix, Apple TV and Disney’s platforms want to buy. I host Ankler Agenda and wrote about Netflix’s sports strategy and millennial and Gen Z job challenges. I’m at elaine@theankler.com
Happy Monday, readers — I’ve got a little insider inspiration today to kick off your week: cheekily good advice from director-writer-actor Katie Aselton (The Puffy Chair, The League, Magic Hour), who spoke with me on stage Friday at the Alliance of Women Directors’ Back to Set symposium. Here’s her message for emerging filmmakers and creators:
“I would say: Fail. And fail and fail again — cheaply, and without harming your finances, and without going in the hole on it. In doing that, that is how you become better. That is how you learn. That is how you find your voice. So find that voice on your weekends with the people who inspire you. You’re gonna make something, and it’s going to be bad. But then you’re gonna find something, and in that thing, you’re like, ‘Ooh, that was interesting. Let’s go further down that road and pull it in.’”
So for those of you making something — and trying to get it seen — today’s Sellers’ Guide turns to NBC and Peacock, where old-school TV development is making a partial comeback, to the relief of reps and creators.
A Tracy Morgan show from 30 Rock writers. A spinoff of The Office. Pilot season! NBCUniversal may not be able to rewind the clock back to the Must See TV days of yore, but the company is trying, with some success, to Make It 1997 2006 Again Through Science or Magic.
As my colleague Lesley Goldberg reported, broadcaster NBC ordered eight pilots this year. While development continues to be a year-round process at both NBC and Peacock, the network’s pilot process was a welcome relief to longtimers in town who’ve ridden out plague and strikes and streaming wars this past decade.
Still, a broadcast network — particularly NBC, which recently welcomed the NBA back to its primetime schedule — has only so many openings for new scripted shows.
“The real estate is just so limited,” the agent says, recalling the days in broadcast “where they were picking up five new series in drama and a couple in comedy. Now it’s like, we’re gonna get two drama shows, if we’re lucky, and that’s it.”
But with its sister streamer approaching profitability, and a surprising number of series in development there, let’s take a look at what it takes to get a show greenlit at NBCUniversal platforms.
In today’s Sellers’ Guide:
- Where NBC and Peacock still have room to buy — and where the lanes are already crowded
- Who’s making development and greenlight decisions at NBC and Peacock
- Why creators and reps love the pilot process, and which genre benefits most
- The Dick Wolf show that didn’t make the cut but might still have a future at NBC
- What makes reps nervous about NBC’s schedule and sports-heavy budgets
- Peacock’s robust slate and whether it’s still buying from outside studios
- Two genres in demand at the streamer, including the new coinage, “white wine thrillers”
- What’s still holding Peacock back as a brand
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