How To Create A TV Show

Last updated on February 17th, 2022 at 01:15 am

You have an idea for a TV show. There’s intrigue. There’s action. It’s going to make Game of Thrones look like Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. 

Amazing. Now: where do you start? In this article, we’ll guide you through each step to create your TV show.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Create a TV Show

Hollywood has changed. It’s never been easier to bypass the gatekeepers in film.

Advances in cameras, editing software, and visual effects mean anyone can produce a movie on their 13-in Macbook Pro. Thanks to services like YouTube, Vimeo, and Filmhub, distribution is only a few clicks away.

But television? TV is still a black box, even to many working in the industry. How do you start your own TV show?

We’ll guide you through the six steps to create your tv show below:

1. Develop A Captivating Pitch
2. Write the Pilot Script
3. Assemble Your Creative Elements
4. Produce Your Pilot
5. ​​Get Your Series Order
6. Build Your Career in TV

Let’s roll ‘em.

(Looking for more help on navigating your Hollywood career? Learn how to get the most out of a Hollywood internship, get your first job in entertainment, and which job is the surest path to become a showrunner.)

Step 1. Develop A Captivating Pitch

Before it’s a series, it’s a pilot.[efn_note]While more shows are going straight-to-series, many still start as a pilot.[/efn_note]

Before it’s a pilot, it’s a script.

And before it’s a script, it’s a pitch.

To go from pitch to script, a studio or network needs to “greenlight” your idea. They have to say, “yes, we want you to create that TV show.”

To get that green light, someone (a manager, agent, or lawyer) schedules a meeting between you and a studio/network executive. There, it’s your job to capture their attention by immersing them in the world you’ll create on television.

Building this world requires deep research.

A small personal example (from Chris): when prepping for an HBO pitch, I lived at the Santa Monica library. I spent weeks there, researching the history of psychotherapy and asylums in the United States. For a pitch at Showtime, I spent one week just researching native fauna in Hawaii.

To sell your pitch, know your world inside-out. Then give them a unique point of view to explore that world.

After the pitch, you can leave give the executives a treatment. The treatment is the pitch in written form and can be anywhere from a single page to 50 pages. It’s an overview of the world you’ll explore and narrative arcs through the first season (and beyond).

If the execs like what they hear, they buy your pitch.

From there, you’re onto the next step: writing and delivering the pilot script.

Step 2. Write the Pilot Script

The pitch was the initial sketch of your idea.

The script is the painting: full brush strokes, colored in, ready to frame and mount.

There are certain table stakes when it comes to writing your script:

• Right structure & format. For example, if it’s a single-cam drama, there’s a teaser and 4-5 acts. Multi-cam sitcom, cold-open and 2 acts. Screencraft has an in-depth explainer of the differences between the two. Learn the conventions and stick to them.
• Right tone. Your show will air on a network, and every network has a brand. Your show should match the tone of that brand. A script you deliver to NBC should be different than one to Netflix.
• Introduce the world and POV. All those great elements you delivered in your pitch now need to come alive in the script. That’s what you sold the network on. Deliver on that promise.

There are enough books and articles on how to write an amazing pilot. Read those, write one, and deliver it to the studio or network.

Now the real work to create a TV show starts.

This process is a harrowing one, referred to as “development hell” in the industry.

Why? During the pitch phase, the execs didn’t have any input on your TV show. It was all you. At this stage, executives give notes. This includes a critique from the business perspective, not just creative.

Notes tend to focus on things like:

• Is the script what they envisioned when they bought the pitch?
• Is it in line with their mandate?
• Does it fit their brand?
• Will it fit the budget?

Next, you’ll deliver rewrites that incorporate those notes while maintaining your creative integrity. It’s a tricky balance.

After the rewrites, everyone agrees the script is ready. You send the script to the top network executives to read. Then you pray for the green light.

When that green light comes, take the evening to celebrate. The next day, it’s onto the next step to create a TV show.

3. Assemble Your Creative Elements

A quick reminder about what’s at stake here:

Your pilot is the tip of the spear of a television enterprise. The first episode of any television series, whether it’s a half-hour comedy like SEINFELD, an hour-long drama like THE WALKING DEAD, or an animated series like BOJACK HORSEMAN, determines if that show is on the air for five seasons, or fades into history after the third episode.

That’s hundreds of careers, thousands of jobs, and millions of dollars on the line.

This is why so much time, energy, and money goes into making these pilots. So much is riding on a successful reception of your show.

Your next step is to put together your team (director, casting director, showrunner, etc.) and begin casting. If you pitched your script during pilot season, this means the rest of Hollywood is doing the same, at the exact same time.

It’s a race to get your first, second, or even third choice for jobs.

Statistically, most shows fail and lose money. So networks and studios look for ways to minimize their downside. One strategy is to make a pilot pick-up “cast-contingent:” which means the network will only release enough money to fund casting. If an acceptable cast isn’t found, they stop the project and leave it half-baked in development hell.

Step 4. Produce Your Pilot

After putting your team together and finding a network-approved cast, you film your pilot. It’s a race to complete:

1. The table read
2. A run-through for the team and cast
3. A second run-through for the network
4. A day set aside for the director to set up shots
5. The actual shoot

How long does it take to shoot a pilot? 

It depends: multi-cam comedy pilots shot on a soundstage may take only a few days. Single-cam pilots, however, may shoot for weeks or more.

For example, the massive 2-hour LOST pilot took two-and-a-half months to shoot.

Meanwhile, notes are still coming in. The network, studio, and sometimes even cast will offer notes. You’ll continue to rework the pilot script during production.

How much do pilots cost? 

The average cost for a 30-minute comedy pilot is $2 million. Meanwhile, an hour-long drama averages around $5.5 million.

Those are averages. Some cost much more:

• LOST’s pilot cost somewhere between $10 and $14 million.
• The Scorsese-filmed BOARDWALK EMPIRE pilot ran up an $18 million price tag.
• Fox’s TERRA NOVA cost between $10 to $20 million.

Studios and networks use cast-contingencies clauses because pilots are so expensive. And most shows do not recoup the costs to create a TV show.

At this stage, the studio or network can take more steps to minimize their downside if they’re not confident in the product.

Instead of shooting a “full pilot,” they can shoot low-budget pilots or a “proof of concept” presentations. In a presentation, you work off a truncated pilot script. You film only essential scenes. You even shoot on borrowed sets! Anything to bring down costs.

This gives the network an idea of what the full pilot would look like, with much less risk. Shows like CBS’s JUDGING AMY and MTV’s CASSANDRA FRENCH’S FINISHING SCHOOL FOR BOYS started as presentations. JUDGING AMY had a successful run. CASSANDRA FRENCH’S was never picked up.

Once you’ve shot the pilot, it goes through the editing process. A pilot goes through a series of cuts by the director, showrunner, and studio before it’s turned into the network.

Networks then run the pilot through screenings and market tests. Based on this data, they’ll cut the script again if needed.

Meanwhile, writers continue reworking the script based on notes made by the cast and team, and sometimes even recasting.

Even at this stage, the studio or network can take further steps to minimize their downside if they aren’t confident in the project. Instead of shooting a “full pilot,” they can shoot low-budget pilots or “proof of concept” presentations instead. With these, only a truncated script is shot and borrowed sets are used, to cut down on expenses.

This gives the network an idea of what the full pilot would look like without a major investment (and major risk). Shows like CBS’s JUDGING AMY and MTV’s CASSANDRA FRENCH’S FINISHING SCHOOL FOR BOYS were shot as presentation pilots (with JUDGING AMY ultimately having a successful series run, while CASSANDRA FRENCH’S was never picked up).

Step 5. Get Your Series Order

Once the pilot is in the network’s hands, they decide whether to order your show to series. This is called a series pick-up. Meanwhile, you wait in creative purgatory.

If you’re in the pilot season cycle, networks view all pilots en masse a few weeks before the May upfront presentations. Then shortly before the upfronts, networks place their orders.

Series orders are based on:

• What shows will draw the biggest audiences?
• What shows fill certain programming blocks?
• What shows will be important critically?
• What shows meet the network’s mandate?
• What shows meet the network’s brand?

A handful of pilots get series orders. The rest are dead pilots.

If you’re one of the lucky few to get a series order, congratulations! You’ve successfully created a TV show. Next, you’re staffing your writer’s room. Time to write scripts for your first season, whether that’s 7 or 13 or 22 episodes.

Meanwhile, network executives screen the pilot episodes for advertisers in the upfront presentations, to sell commercial airtime.

Build Your Career in TV

A successful pilot, even one that gets a series order, is no guarantee of a successful career. Television is a beautiful art. It’s also a business.

These days, that business is evolving quickly. In a few short years:

• Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, and Apple have become television powerhouses
• Snap’s released 5-minute vertical video TV shows
• Quibi, the short-form streaming platform, launched and shutdown

And as the game changes, so does how creators get paid. For example, Netflix, at one point was investing more money into content than all the networks combined. They paid huge upfront fees but bought all the rights to royalties and residuals.

It can feel like a lot to keep up with. Especially if you want to focus on writing and world-building.

But remember, these changes cut both ways:

On one hand, it’s a lot of work to stay up to date. You’ll have to do your own research and develop a strong network in Hollywood to help you navigate this world.

On the other hand, there are so many ways to stand out, grab someone’s attention, and create your TV show.

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Photo Credit: AMC