Amazon Greenlights Five Test Pilots For Full Production, Including Nerd-Centric 'Betas'
Three cheers for democracy! The voting public has done their duty, and now Amazon is making known which of its original series will remain on the air. After a month or so of broadcasting via Amazon Instant, five pilots were chosen as the top-rated, and only those five will see production beyond the initial pilot episode. It was a highly unique tactic; Amazon funded and developed a number of new programs, and then aired them exclusively to Prime members for viewing. Then, it asked those viewers to vote on which they enjoyed the most.
Comedy pilots Alpha House and Betas, along with kids pilots Annebots, Creative Galaxy and Tumbleaf, have been given the greenlight to begin production on a full series of episodes that will air exclusively on Prime Instant Video later this year and in early 2014. "We are thrilled at the enthusiastic customer response to our first original pilots," said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. "We built Amazon Studios so that customers could help decide which stories would make the very best movies and TV shows. It's exciting to see the process in motion, doing exactly what we set out to do. The success of this first set of pilots has given us the push to try this approach with even more shows-this is just the beginning."
We know we're pretty biased towards technology, but Betas was indeed a pretty excellent pilot. It's actually great that of all the shows, the nerdy one actually made the cut. Then again, The Big Bang Theory has done quite well for itself on the tube, too.
Comedy pilots Alpha House and Betas, along with kids pilots Annebots, Creative Galaxy and Tumbleaf, have been given the greenlight to begin production on a full series of episodes that will air exclusively on Prime Instant Video later this year and in early 2014. "We are thrilled at the enthusiastic customer response to our first original pilots," said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. "We built Amazon Studios so that customers could help decide which stories would make the very best movies and TV shows. It's exciting to see the process in motion, doing exactly what we set out to do. The success of this first set of pilots has given us the push to try this approach with even more shows-this is just the beginning."
We know we're pretty biased towards technology, but Betas was indeed a pretty excellent pilot. It's actually great that of all the shows, the nerdy one actually made the cut. Then again, The Big Bang Theory has done quite well for itself on the tube, too.
