Legion M's Insider Hollywood Tips: Buying and Selling TV Shows!

The world of Hollywood is changing... Yes of course because of COVID, but also the way that we buy and sell TV shows has been evolving for quite some time. We thought it would be fun to give our community a little glimpse behind the scenes at how Tinseltown runs these days!

Did you know that Hollywood’s TV buyers have almost always worked on very specific pitching and pilot cycles throughout the calendar year? Back in the day, when the buyers were just cable and network channels, TV pitching season — when you sell your idea — occurred from June to November. And TV pilot season — when the buyer decides to turn your idea into an actual filmed episode of TV to determine if they want to order the entire series — occurred from December through May. This was also the best time for up-and-coming actors to get their feet wet and hopefully land a big role on a show that would go to series.

The stage of the ABC Upfronts. Image credit to Getty Images.

Then in May, networks each hosted their own spring “up-fronts,” which were elaborate private events spanning almost an entire week. Think of it like an untelevised awards show, but instead of Academy Awards, the networks presented their upcoming programming to sell to advertisers. This is also the time that buyers informed the creators of those shows whether or not their series was moving forward. In this old model, TV series almost always premiered in the fall (around September) or in “mid-season,” which was typically the winter (around January).

That’s not the case any more! Networks still work in the typical development cycle, but with the rising popularity of streaming services and year-round programming, buyers tend to hear pitches — and therefore premiere their shows — year-round as well.

This change in the norm presents a new opportunity for Legion M. What’s great is that we can prepare and pitch our shows in development year-round — yahoo! And while it’s hard to predict the best time to pitch to each individual studio and network, it’s a lot easier to get the meetings.

The one thing that hasn’t changed? That most buyers shut down between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which are widely known as the worst times to pitch your series. As you can probably imagine, that means Legion M is currently pressing pause on pitching our shows, but we’re going full-steam ahead on developing, packaging, and preparing our pitches for after New Year’s in the meantime.

Got a question about the industry you’d like us to answer in a blog post? Shoot us an email at team@legionm.com!