Online retailer Amazon has announced that its production company, Amazon Studios, will produce sitcom pilots and allow viewers to decide which one will become a new series, further underscoring how streaming video is changing how we watch television and how programs are made.
Amazon Studios will produce six original sitcom pilots written by "a diverse set of writers" including veterans of The Daily Show and Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau. Each pilot will appear on Amazon's Instant Video service and, like an episode of American Idol, viewers will choose a winner. The roster of shows runs the gamut from an animated series about "two slackers just trying to make a paycheck working an intergalactic warship" to a musical comedy that sounds like Seinfeld meets Glee in an online news site.
“The six comedy pilots will begin production shortly, and once they are complete, we plan to post the pilots on Amazon Instant Video for feedback," Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios, said in a statement. "We want Amazon customers to help us decide which original series we should produce.”
The announcement follows an announcement that Netflix will begin producing original exclusive programming. The moves to emulate HBO and other cable networks show how serious streaming services are about becoming content destinations for viewers instead of giant video libraries.
Amazon's approach is novel and a great way to determine which show will have the best chance of succeeding. But it's not terribly different than what traditional networks have always done. Television networks typically order a pilot following a pitch by a production company. Pilots are then screened by focus groups or network execs who decide which programs get the green light.
Amazon says its production company waded through more than 2,000 series ideas before choosing the final six. The writers include "newcomers to Hollywood and industry veterans with notable credits and awards." They include Trudeau, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who in addition to his popular comic strip wrote the politically themed TV series Tanner '88 for HBO. His program, Alpha House, chronicles the adventures of four senators who live in a rented house in D.C.
"Amazon has been so innovative and successful in so many realms, it's impossible not to get excited about its new venture into online programming," Trudeau said in a statement. "We look forward to partnering with Amazon's creative team, making a great show, and as the holidays approach, receiving free two-day shipping for the entire cast and crew.”
Others involved in the programs include veterans of The Daily Show, a director from 30 Rock, a pair of actors from Big Bang Theory and, our favorite, The Onion, which has created an episode of The Onion Presents: The News.
If Amazon and Netflix are successful with their content ventures, the companies would not only become necessary subscriptions for the cord-cutting set, but also for viewers still paying for subscription TV.
