Many TV pilot opportunities vanished overnight in wake of coronavirus

Los Angeles Times

"Pilot season, which typically runs from late February to early May, injects an estimated $500 million in annual spending into the entertainment economy, which also boosts small firms such as prop houses and catering firms that provide support," reports Meg James. "The disruption of pilot season underscores the rippling economic effects of the health crisis. Some industry veterans are predicting that pilot season, as we know it, may never be the same, especially if network executives discover they can live without the compressed window of production — a mad dash to find the next big hit." Former NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield thinks coronavirus will deal the final blow to pilot season. “I suspect that we’ll look back on this event and say: ‘That was the tipping point.' All the walls have been crumbling, and this is the final blast," he says.