Broadcast Pilot Buzz – Summer 2024 Edition
22.06.2024 - 00:23
/ deadline.com
As Hollywood starts to slow down ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, broadcast networks have some unfinished business — making decisions on several pilots ordered earlier this year. With development no longer confined within the bounds of the traditional TV cycle that comes to an end at the May upfronts, networks are taking longer to produce and evaluate pilots before deciding their fate. Here is where the Big 4 stand heading into the summer.
ABC has two new drama series for next season, High Potential and Dr. Odyssey — both on the fall schedule — and no new comedies. That will change as the network has two multi-camera pilots, Shifting Gears, starring Tim Allen and Kat Dennings, and Forgive & Forget, headlined by Ty Burrell. Both are considered very strong contenders.
Shifting Gears is ahead of Forgive & Forget timeline-wise; a cut was delivered and seen earlier this week this week, I hear. Meanwhile, Forgive & Forget is taping today.
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ABC has comedy needs: by the end of this season, the network will be down to one returning series, flagship Abbott Elementary, as The Conners is set for an abbreviated seventh and final season.
With both Shifting Gears and Forgive & Forget being in the more cost-effective multi-camera format and featuring popular ABC comedy stars in Home Improvement and Last Man Standing‘s Allen and Modern Family‘s Burrell, there is a good chance for both to go to series, I hear.
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Allen is a Disney fixture beyond his two hit ABC series as star of the Toy Story movies and The Santa Clause film and TV franchise, coming off the Disney+’s series. As Deadline reported, the intent to get Allen back on the air was so strong, ABC