Television pilot: Difference between revisions

By the mid-1980s, the rise of [[cable television]] outlets had led to an increase of original programming during the summer months and ABC, CBS, and NBC began to experience a decline in summer viewership;<ref name=tvobsecurities19671989/> the launch of [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] as a fourth major network in 1987 only exacerbated the problem for the former "Big Three" networks.<ref name=tvobsecurities19671989/> Although CBS viewed ''CBS Summer Playouse'' — broadcast during the summers of 1987, 1988, and 1989 — as original programming that addressed this issue, it was the the last anthology series of unsold pilots.<ref name=tvobsecurities19671989/> Unsold pilots aired as one-offs occasionally during the 1990s, but then the practice of broadcasting them ended almost entirely.<ref name=tvobsecurities19671989/>