US networks back "the writer's vision"

At the annual meeting of the Television Critics Association (TCA), held in July at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Pasadena, the CEOs of all the major broadcast networks proclaimed there are no longer any pre-conceived structures or themes guiding the planning of a primetime fall television season. It is an open frontier.

“What we've come to learn is, it is all about the writer,” says Nina Tassler, President, CBS Entertainment. “We're aggressively developing projects year round. We tell writers, 'Bring us your passion projects; bring us the project that excites you.' So, if they bring us something that's serialized, if they bring something that is closed-ended, if they bring something that is unorthodox and unusual, it doesn't matter. If we at the network respond to the quality of the storytelling, and it's a great opportunity for us, we're going to move forward on it. We don't preclude development of any one form over another. The point is: it's about the writer's vision. How does he or she best feel the story is serviced.”

More from Julio Martinez for the Writers Guild of America, west.