TVSquad

This seems to be NBC Announcement Week. A day after we reported that the Peacock network was going to scrap their upfront presentation this year comes this news: they're getting rid of pilot episodes too!

Jeff Zucker says that pilots are too expensive and often aren't even a good indication of what the rest of the show's episodes will be like (we've seen this with many shows recently - the first episode is big and expensive and incredible and then the following episodes...not so much). Also, many shows never even get beyond a pilot episode, so he doesn't want to spend millions on pilots.

• Now both NBC and Barbara Walters have said no to a Paris Hilton interview.
• Nicole Richie might be going to jail too.
• It's a good thing Steve Carell has that day job over at The Office.
• A funny list of TV pilots that didn't make it.
• Here's a whole gallery of photos from Pamela Anderson's DirectTV commercial shoot.
• BuddyTV has an interview with Traveler's Matthew Bomer.
• Stephen Colbert has some thoughts on that condom ad rejected by CBS and FOX.

Every year, the networks have their pilot season. Many of the shows don't make it and you never hear about them again. Some actually make it on the air and onto the fall schedules. The networks are going to announce their new fall schedules in May (and we'll complete coverage here, of course), but Buzzsugar has a sneak peek at some of the pilots that are competing for a slot on the nets.

But it's not your typical sneak peek, it's a quiz! They list the plots for ten shows. Some of them are real, some of them are fake. Can you tell which is which? My favorite plot descriptions, whether they're real or not, are the comedy about "two soda salesmen on a never ending business trip," and the drama about "a girl raised by a pack of wolves who goes to boarding school."

(When you're done, the answers are here.)

In this roundup of all the latest casting and pilot news, it says that ER star Shane West has been added to the cast of Supreme Courtships, a new FOX comedy that really has to get a new title before it hits the air.

Hmmm...does that mean he's leaving the NBC drama? Not that all pilots get picked up of course, but just the fact that he's starring in the pilot is interesting. I think when he joined ER it wasn't supposed to be a long term role. But now it seems like he's smack dab in the middle of all the action at the hospital: concentrating on his medical career instead of his music, being in a possible triangle with Gates and Neela, etc.

In other casting news, The Nine's Daybreak's Adam Baldwin has joined the cast of NBC's Chuck, and LL Cool J will play a cop in CBS' Anthony Zuiker (CSI) drama The Man.

[via TV Tattle]