CBS cancels 20 projects
- Published by David Knox
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American writers and the AMPTP are set to have informal talks on Tuesday but that wasn’t enough to stop CBS from pulling the plug on 20 projects in development today, most of them dramas.
The vast majority of them had not yet delivered scripts to the network.
“Due to the ongoing writers strike, our development needs for the upcoming pilot season have changed, and we have released some comedy and drama scripts,” CBS said.
The US pilot season, normally mid-March to May, is now in serious jeopardy.
While some writers normally receive some upfront money, their script fees are largely paid upon delivery of the script, something that won’t happen now.
If NBC makes a similar move it could hit the US version of Kath and Kim, despite Ben Silverman previously boasting it was “ready to shoot.” On the other hand if US script adaptations of the Aussie scripts have been delivered, as Silverman seems to suggest, it may surface as one of the few new comedies of the 2008 season.
Source: Reuters