2026 may get a spot in broadcast history as the year NBC brought pilot season back. The network this year ordered eight pilots, five dramas and three comedies, the most any broadcast network has done in a cycle since the pandemic. Even more importantly, NBC is doing it in the traditional January – May window.
The network has been sticking to the typical timeline of pilot production, delivery and testing, with company screenings, usually the last step before series pickup decisions are made, slated for the last week of April, I hear.
With screenings two and a half weeks away, pilots are still being put together, so information about them is incomplete, based mostly on reactions to dailies, early cuts and tapings.
The overall sentiment is that networks scaling back from the heights of pilot season volume in the 2000s when the major broadcasters would make more than 20 comedy and drama pilots each within that condensed window has helped the level of execution and quality — as well as securing bonafide TV stars as leads in a depressed talent market.
That applies to NBC, and early word is that its 2026 pilot contingent is pretty strong, which would make for tough pickup choices. There is speculation that if the network ends up with more pilots worthy of a series order — especially on the drama side — than the slots available on the NBC schedule, at least one new show could be diverted to sibling streamer Peacock.
With the caveat that this is a marathon, not a sprint, two pilots have been garnering strong early buzz — both with PIs at the center — The Rockford Files drama reboot starring David Boreanaz and the Dan Goor/Luke Del Tredici single-camera comedy starring Jake Johnson.
That is not surprising. The Rockford Files is a beloved NBC title, while the comedy, which comes from a Brooklyn Nine-Nine team, already had received a big production commitment and a California tax credit.
With the pilot duo emerging as early frontrunners, the rest of the field is still murky. That said, there has been strong early buzz about two crime-solving drama pilots, Puzzled, starring Damon Wayans Jr., and the Untitled Dean Georgaris /John Fox project, headlined by Emily Deschanel. There also has been encouraging feedback from the taping of the multi-camera comedy pilot Newlyweds, starring Tèa Leoni and Tim Daly.
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NBC’s pilots coming in solid puts more pressure on the network’s bubble series, dramas Beautiful Minds, whose fate is pretty much sealed, and The Hunting Party, as well as freshman comedies Stumble, which is in danger and The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, which only recently premiered and whose pedigree, coming from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock and starring Tracy Morgan, would likely help it secure a renewal.
We will retake the temperature of NBC’s pilot race as more reliable information starts to come in.
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