Trying to come up with your next big TV show?
...chances are it will not be in a staff meeting

From 10 secrets to success form George Lois 

Teamwork might work in building an Amish barn, but it can’t create a Big Idea. The accepted system for the creation of innovative thinking in a democratic environment is to work cooperatively in a team-like ambience. Don’t believe it. Whatever the creative industry, when you’re confronted with the challenge of coming up with a Big Idea, always work with the most talented, innovative mind available. Hopefully … that’s you. Avoid group grope and analysis paralysis. The greatest innovative thinker of our age remains Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, a modern-day Henry Ford. Jobs was not a consensus builder but a dictator who listened to his own intuitions, blessed with an astonishing aesthetic sense.

Be confident but not cocky in your next big pitch meeting

Stephanie Palmer has this to say: Communicate Confidence in 3 Steps When you promote yourself and your work in a pitch meeting, it doesn’t demonstrate confidence.  It just annoys the decision-maker.  

Instead, try these three steps:

1.  Let other people say great things about you.

Your agent, your producer, other executives who have worked with you, can talk about your work and say, “This is the best script I’ve read this year.”  

Validation of you and your work from a third-party is much more credible.

2.  Let your pitch have the focus.

Here’s what communicates confidence:  just pitching your story.  No pre-qualifications, no “pumping up” the executive or raving about how great it is in advance.  Simply tell the story.

3.  Let the decision-maker form their own opinions.

Give the decision-maker the space to think, feel, and form opinions on their own.  Let them be the judge.  After all, they are.

USA Network's hit show Burn Notice was a first time TV series sale

(from TV Training newsletter)

The success story behind USA Network’s hit show Burn Notice should come as welcome news to novice show creators everywhere.

Matt Nix was a screenwriter stuck in development hell with none of his scripts getting made in Hollywood. Out of frustration, he tried writing a TV pilot, and his first pilot script was… Burn Notice.

“I didn’t know anything when I started,” Nix said. “I wrote a n entire pilot without any space for commercials.”

But what he did do was follow an important piece of advice: Write about something you'd watch and are passionate about, as opposed to following a trend or what someone tells you to do.

The script sold into a series and the show is now in its sixth season.

What made the difference?

Opportunities are available in cable television and niche marketing. You no longer have to paint with a broad stroke and attract huge audiences with bland content.

Cable television now resembles the magazine rack at your local Barnes and No ble: There are magazines for every specific interest under the sun (and yes, there’s probably one for tanning).

Advertisers love this development because they can specifically target a more receptive audience to their product or service.

Mad Men or Breaking Bad on AMC don’t have to get 10 million viewers like a CBS or ABC show to be successful because the 2 million viewers that they do get are the more upscale viewers that advertisers crave for their higher end products (notice all the Mercedes and Lincoln ads).

Pay attention to the advertisers on your favorite cable show to understand just how targeted these markets are, and where your prospective show fits.

Because of this development, cable now represents an insatiable market for original programming.

Do you have a show – reality or scripted – that meets the interests of a desirable niche market?