Netflix goes pilot mode for the first time with single-camera comedy Little Sky
The show, starring Samara Weaving, will be Netflix's first project to go through the pilot process
Aux News Netflix
After altering the television industry model with a stubborn commitment to straight-to-series orders, Netflix is once again giving in to the tried and true practices of network TV with its first pilot. After 12 years of exclusively utilizing the straight-to-series development model, Netflix is giving in with a new single-camera comedy, titled Little Sky.
Little Sky, starring Scream VI’s Samara Weaving, centers on an inept broadcast reporter by the name of Penelope Paul Porter (Weaving). Looking to solidify herself as a respected journalist, she pursues a breaking story on the missing mayor of Little Sky. With the help of an anonymous tip, Penelope heads out to the remote town for some on-the-ground reporting. The unprepared reporter stumbles onto a larger story, which becomes darker than she could have ever imagined.
Netflix wants to make it clear that the way of the pilot will not become the norm for the streamer, but is a move beginning and ending with Little Sky. According to Deadline, Netflix executives were “high on the concept but wanted to see a pilot to make sure the tone and the chemistry of the large ensemble were right,” a.k.a. the reason why any television network orders a pilot.
Maybe the company is realizing that ordering entire first seasons of shows without an initial test run is uneconomical and annoying to customers, who hate to see shows regularly canceled after one season. Despite the Netflix executive’s claims, it seems unlikely Netflix will never order a pilot again, especially if Little Sky proves to be a success. As streamers continue to concede to the practices of network television, we can add pilots to the pile alongside weekly episode releases and FAST services. It’s fun to see all this just become cable again.
10 Comments
they should have gamified this shit ages ago. i think the most baffling thing netflix did was not bake in any community aspects. not saying it had to be as robust as something like psn or xbox live, but having friends/followers tuning into what you’re watching (and vice versa) is such a miss. they should have bought letterboxd a decade ago and just folded all of that in.reason i’m bringing it up here is how fun would it have been, as a netflix subscriber who is paying the bills, to directly have been able to sculpt some of the programming just like this. gimme a pilot episode and then have a ‘should we make more?’ prompt.amazon did something similar (briefly), but it could have been such a cool way to broadcast AND make tv.
It’s all fun and games until Boaty McBoatface: Back on the Boat gets greenlit for a five-season commitment.
Naw, you ask for everyone’s input to get them engaged, and just ignore it.
After so many TV shows being canceled after one or two seasons over the last decade, I’d watch anything as long as I knew it was going to have a middle and an end, not just a beginning.
That’s why I like movies.
They used to have comments and reviews back in the day.
Amazon was only pretending to factor in customer feedback. Reportedly, Chris Carter’s pilot got the highest audience scores, while Transparent got the lowest. Which one got a series order?
I was bummed The Onion’s show didn’t get picked up.
I would watch Samara Weaving read the phone book, so I’m in for this one. She was great in Ready or Not and should 100% be the lead in more stuff.
It’s not a real pilot unless they dump it on Netflix at a random point in the summer for confused people to watch.