An Open Letter to the Men Who Run the Networks

Dear  _____(insert Leslie, Rupert, Jeff, etc),

I’m not sure when you last checked your calendar (seeing that you have legions of assistants to do that for you) but we are in 2009. Almost 10 years into the 21st century. Crazy, I know.

We have creative people all over the world doing amazing stuff in science, medicine, technology and basically every field out there, and yet in entertainment we haven’t changed much since 1950.

In fact, while people are using the resources of the internet in ways never imagined, while you have 27-year-olds running billion dollar businesses (Mark Zuckerberg I am talking to you), whilen we have the first black president elected largely because he used the internet to harness the power of the people, you are still running your network like a king and we are all your subjects.

Think about this way:

You use an archaic system where you pay for dozens of pilots for new tv shows, have studios ruin these shows with their script notes, film only a handful of these pilots, and then pick up one or two new shows (not even mentioning that you often cancel the new show after only two airings).

Yet you do this with little to no input from the actual people who are going to be watching your shows.  (And I am not counting your test audiences.  We all know how useless they are — Seinfeld, CSI anyone?) You alone are the sole arbitrator of what ends up on the air.

So here’s my solution:

Put everything up on the internet.  You heard me. Put all the filmed pilot shows online.

Let your audience vote, comment and participant in choosing what shows go to air.  You like reality tv (since you put so much of it on the air), so just think of this tv development plan as the American Idol model.

In fact, let’s take it one step further and say hey, why don’t we put the pilot scripts online and let people vote on what pilots should be filmed? By having audience input in the process early on, you could save millions of dollars of wasted money on pilots that never see daylight.

Or think about it this way: you could have people invested in your show early on! Before the show even goes on air.

Think of all that marketing expense you can save! You’ll have legions of fans who feel that they have ownership of the show and they’ll do your marketing work for you.  Crazy, I know.

But, maybe, just maybe, if you included the audience from the beginning of the development process, you too might get an American Idol-size audience for your new shows.

P.S.  If you want to discuss this innovative strategy further, let me know.  I’ll be happy to expound on the Rachel Miller Future of Television Plan.