What You'll Need to Pitch Your Show
A 15-minute pitch (presentation) that provides an overview of your show. A sales pitch is a brief presentation – no more than 12-15 minutes long – that describes your show and communicates the value it will bring to the company or network you're pitching to. To emphasize the innovative concept and sellability of your show, talk about: The Hook: Emphasize the "what if" premise of your show to show why it's original, compelling, and a good fit for the network or production company you're pitching it to. The Audience: Describe who this show is for and how it aligns with the network's current target audience. The "Trailer:" If you were selling this show in a commercial, what parts would you highlight? What are the "clips" or scenes that flesh out the world of the show? Describe them or create a concept video showing what they could look like. Practice your pitch multiple times before the meeting. Be well prepared so you don't stumble and lose your audience's confidence and attention.
A pitch document to supplement your presentation A pitch document contains 10-12 pages and includes the title, logline, synopsis, series bible, and pilot script for your show. If the television executives like your sales pitch, they'll read this document to get a better sense of what it's about, who the characters are, and its development potential.
Where to Pitch Your TV Show
Add your pitch document to a TV script database like the Black List. These sites cost money, but the upside is they allow network and streaming executives to peruse and purchase your scripts. Another benefit sites like Black List or Coverfly offer is they allow you to sell your script without having to go through an agent.
Contact companies, networks, or agencies that might like your idea. Go online and find phone numbers, emails, and submission guidelines for companies that are making shows similar to yours. Get in touch however you can and ask them to schedule a pitch meeting so you can discuss your ideas. Research what a network or studio is already making to pitch to the right people. For example, if you're pitching a baking show competition, you may want to approach Netflix since they already have a roster of successful baking shows like Nailed It and The Great British Baking Show. For a television adaptation of an epic fantasy book series, try reaching out to Amazon, which has streamed successful titles like Wheel of Time and Rings of Power.
Pitch your TV show to executives at a pitchfest. A pitchfest is an opportunity for TV show writers to connect with professionals representing the top production companies, agencies, and networks in the industry. You typically only have a few minutes to pitch your idea, but if it's well-liked, you could win resources and support to grow your career in TV. Popular pitchfests include the Hollywood Pitch Festival and The Pitch Competition.
Network with as many TV industry professionals as you can. Meeting people and making connections is sometimes an effective way to sell a show idea. Grab coffee with friends who work for real production companies, join a studio fellowship program, and take jobs on TV show sets. Even if one person isn't able to make your idea a reality, they may know someone who could help.
Writing Your Pitch Document
Come up with a catchy, memorable title. Most TV show titles include some sort of play on words, and having a good turn of phrase can ensure that your show is immediately recognized. Mad Men, for example, is about ad agencies and the men who work there, most of whose lives are spiraling out of control. Community is about a community college, but also a group of close-knit friends.
Write an exciting, enticing logline. The logline is a 1-2 sentence description of your show designed to sell producers on your idea. It usually describes the main agenda of the show, the main character, and the hook that makes it interesting. Back to the Future: A young man is transported to the past, where he must reunite his parents before he and his future cease to exist. Jaws: A police chief, with a phobia for open water, battles a gigantic shark with an appetite for swimmers and boat captains, in spite of a greedy town council who demands that the beach stay open. Ratatouille: A rat who can cook makes an unusual alliance with a young kitchen worker at a famous Paris restaurant.
Write a one-page synopsis describing the characters, setting, and plot. This is a brief but comprehensive overview of the show that helps production companies and networks decide if they're interested in your show. Some important elements to include are: The setting. The main characters (their names, who they are, and where they're located in the story) The general plot of the series (including the setup, conflict, and climax) The plot arc of most episodes (i.e., what the characters are going to be doing throughout the series)
Write a 1-page character sheet describing your show's characters. List each character and write a 1-2 sentence overview of who they are and their motivations. Keep the overviews brief and specific. Ask yourself: what makes these characters tick, and what makes them special? Unless it's important to the plot, never include physical details or casting preferences.
Write a brief summary for each episode in the first season. If you're writing a drama, you might have 400-500 words each. Keep overviews of 30-minute episodes closer to 200-300 words.
Craft a 1-2 paragraph summary of the rest of the seasons in the series. This will give the executives a chance to see how the show will play out, what each episode will look like, and an idea of the budget and characters in action. If you're pitching a documentary-style reality series, film a short concept video of the cast and show it during your pitch meeting to help producers see the potential of the project. You can also use the video as an opportunity to highlight potential plot lines in the cast's lives.
Write a pilot script for your first episode. At the end of the day, the pitch document will not be on TV. Having a script to go with it means you can give someone the first episode, right off the bat, if they like the idea. That said, many ideas are sold solo and then a script is commissioned later. But this is more common if you are already established in Hollywood. If you're unfamiliar with writing a TV script, learn how to write scripts on your own or through script-writing classes at your local community college. Hay tells TV screenwriters who want to hone their craft to "read a lot of screenplays" by other writers (both professional and amateur ones) and think about the concept, but also the structure and plotting of that story, and whether or not it was successful at what it set out to do. Specialized script-writing software can make quick work of drafting a script. Movie Magic Screen Writer, Celtx, WriterDuet, and Final Draft are popular script writing tools in the industry.
Assemble all your pitch elements into a single, final document. The document should be 3-10 pages with all of the parts in order. In order, you should have: One-sheet (including your title, name, contact information, logline, and synopsis) Series bible (including your character sheet, episode summary, and future seasons summary) Pilot script
Register your project with a copyright service like the Writers Guild of America. This will protect your intellectual property and give you time-stamped proof of creation. You may also wish to register your project online with the Creators Vault or file for copyright protection, though this is often overkill. Registering with the WGA will cost just $20 ($10 at the WGA site if you are already a WGA member), and is considered the industry standard. The registered material is kept on file for five years, at which time you may renew. Terms may vary per service and site.
Developing a TV Show Concept
Develop your show's "what if" premise. This is the basis of your show and almost every show in Hollywood. It's the idea that sets your work apart from the rest and makes it sellable. It can be as simple as "What if a documentary crew filmed a small paper company?" (The Office) or as dramatic as "What if a chemistry teacher started cooking meth?" (Breaking Bad). Avoid weighing your "what if" premise down with a lot of subplots or other ideas yet. Just get the essence of your show on paper. Seinfeld, after all, was famously pitched as "What if we did a show about nothing?"
Research new TV shows to identify current story trends and opportunities. Use "the trades," such as Deadline or Variety as well as social media platforms like Letterboxd to keep up to date about current Hollywood TV and streaming trends. These sources provide hints as to what executives are currently looking for to buy Write down names of production companies and networks attached to TV projects that are similar in genre and tone to yours. These are the names most likely to buy your work later.
Determine the genre of your TV show. Genre is the type of show you're making, like a sitcom or a crime drama. Genre affects your show's atmosphere, tone, and writing style, as well as the audience's expectations for the plot. Hay advises learning about genre so you can discover the "types of things that sell well" in the television industry and create something that audiences will want to watch. There are a lot of nuances to choosing a genre, but when in doubt, look up the genres of your favorite shows for guidance. For example, Arrested Development is a single-camera sitcom, meaning there is no studio audience like there is in classic, multi-cam sitcoms such as Cheers. This difference, though subtle, makes a huge difference when pitching your show, because some networks only want certain genres and styles of shows.
Develop well-rounded characters your target audience can relate to. According to Hay, characters are just as important as the plot and structure of your show. Create between 2-5 main characters, as any more become difficult to manage, with 7 main characters (Community, most dramas) being the upper limit. Your characters should also embody these characteristics: Round. Round characters have multiple facets and aren't just "an angry woman," or "a strong hero." They have strengths as well as weaknesses, and therefore they can grow and adapt as the series continues. Desires and fears. A character's ability or inability to get over their fear (of being poor, of being alone, of space aliens, of spiders, etc.) drives their conflicts in each episode and helps the overarching plot of the series progress. Agency. A good character makes choices that seem natural for their personality but still push the plot forward. They make mistakes, try and fix things, embrace the consequences, etc. because it's something their character would do, not something the writer needs them to do.
Understand what makes a great idea sellable. Development executives are the people who green-light new ideas, and they hear a lot of them. The best ideas, or at least the ones that get through, share a few traits: Originality: Has this been seen before? Is it similar to anything else and, if so, is it different enough to stand on its own? Projected Cost: Few studios will risk hundreds of millions of dollars on an unproven writer or filmmaker. It's difficult to sell big concepts like The Walking Dead when you just started working in TV because of the high financial risk involved. A Screenplay/Proof of Concept: This means writing a treatment, script, and possibly even shooting some sketches. Your idea alone may get you in the door, but you need some work to prove to executives that the show is ready to greenlight.
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