Length of Series?

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  • Length of Series?

    Hi,

    I've been asked to expand a pitch for a TV pilot for a production company. Originally it was a 10 episode limited series. They want me to flesh it out a bit and come back to them with a revised pitch for a longer series. They were a little vague about exactly how long? It seems like a lot of shows are 13 episodes per season?

    I guess my question is are there standard season lengths for cable TV, verses network TV, verses streaming?

    Mine is a dark drama/family drama.

    Thank you so much for your help!!

  • #2
    Re: Length of Series?

    It doesn't sound like the episode/season count is the issue. You described it as a "limited" series which is a limited number of seasons, usually one. It seems they might want you to pitch it as a standard/open-ended series, or perhaps 3+ seasons.

    HTH,
    Just my 2 cents, your mileage may vary.

    -Steve Trautmann
    3rd & Fairfax: The WGAW Podcast

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    • #3
      Re: Length of Series?

      Originally posted by sfire8 View Post
      I guess my question is are there standard season lengths for cable TV, verses network TV, verses streaming?
      Season lengths vary for each of those three options, but I would say the most common/expected season lengths are:

      Network TV = 22 episodes
      Cable TV = 13 episodes
      Streaming = 10 episodes

      And if the prodco wants more than one season then they probably want at least five seasons.

      So I think a good default is 5 seasons * 13 episodes/season = 65 episodes.

      But you only need to map out the episodes in Season 1-- for each of the later seasons, you can just talk about how they as a whole would differ from Season 1 (e.g., if it's an event series, then perhaps there's a different event each season).
      Last edited by Zodraz; 06-06-2016, 10:18 PM.

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      • #4
        Re: Length of Series?

        Wow, thank you both for the quick and thorough replies!!!

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