Despite writers' strike, NBC slate remains intact

By Nellie Andreeva

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - NBC has opted to keep all of its commissioned scripts, bucking the trend set by CBS, Fox and the CW, which significantly trimmed their program development slates during the past few days, citing the effect of the writers' strike.

"Our goal has been to be a very writer-friendly network," NBC executive VP Teri Weinberg said. "We have faith in the writers with whom we made deals, and we want to give them the opportunity to deliver their scripts."

The vast majority of terminated projects at CBS, Fox and the CW were outlines rather than finished scripts.

NBC's position to stick with its pre-strike development slate is shared by its main supplier of content, Universal Media Studios.

"It's been a very difficult and painful time for everybody," UMS president Katherine Pope said. "We want to retain the scripts we've bought as we feel like at this point no one knows where the next hit will come from."

NBC's decision comes on the heels of a series of comments made by NBC Universal president and CEO Jeff Zucker in London, where he gave strong indications that the network is ready to scrap the traditional pilot season and produce only one to two pilots a year, as well as drop the network's glitzy "upfront" presentation to prospective advertisers.

Weinberg said NBC's brass is "not going to put a number" on how many pilots it will shoot, adding that she and NBC programming chief Ben Silverman have pushed through "a straight-to-series strategy that gives us an opportunity to look at subsequent scripts and nurture material."

Since Silverman and Weinberg joined NBC in June, the network has been aggressive in ordering projects straight to series, among them the Tom Fontana drama "The Philanthropist," the anthology series "Fear Itself" and the action-adventure "Robinson Crusoe."