So there I was, talking to my friend Curtis Gwynn about the misery of pitch meetings, only to have him stop me and pull the trigger on the question I’d always been afraid to ask myself:
“C’mon, LB,” Curtis said, “spill. What’s the real reason you hate these meetings so much?”
We can give a quick answer: The pitches are everywhere. You doofusses just don’t know where the $#@! to look!
Pitch Season Starts Slow, NBC And ABC To Scale Back On Development Volume – by Nellie Andreeva
Exactly a year ago, at its TCA executive session NBC announced several projects in development, including a Dick Wolf-produced firefighter drama, which became the network’s upcoming drama series Chicago Fire. This year there has been only one big sale so far — the Alex Kurtzman/Roberto Orci-written and Len Wiseman-directed Sleepy Hollow, which went to Fox with a put pilot commitment.
Pitch season is starting late and is shaping up to be calmer, with less action. I hear NBC and ABC, the most aggressive players last year, are paring down the number of projects they will buy and money they will spend. With a new regime and stuffed coffers, NBC went on a buying spree last summer, joined by ABC. The two networks often ended up in heated bidding wars, sometimes joined by Fox, driving up prices and leading to a slew of big commitments…. I hear NBC and ABC now plan to spend less and go only after projects they fully believe can get to the air. Fox also will be more targeted in its approach as the network accomplished its goal of assembling a two-hour comedy block, so its comedy needs are not as great…