Photo: The Man in the High Castle, IMDB
This is not a democracy, it’s a cheerocracy: Amazon is putting an end to their practice of giving viewers the power to greenlight pilots for Amazon original series.
Amazon began launching their own original shows six years ago, with a unique system of putting the series pilots onto Prime for customers to stream and leave feedback, inviting viewers to be part of the development process.
Back in their fall pilot season announcement, Amazon backed the program, saying, “Amazon customer feedback on pilots has helped make some of the most critically acclaimed and popular series to date, including multi-Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning series Transparent, multi-Golden Globe-winning series Mozart in the Jungle, and the most-streamed scripted Amazon Original Series ever by Prime members globally, The Man in the High Castle, winner of two Emmys.”
But they’ve now decided to do away with the public pilots. “We’ll use our own testing barometers and some user data but the public voting process has been set aside for now,” Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s press tour.
Amazon’s co-head of TV, Albert Cheng, explained that part of the problem was that the system of releasing the pilots and waiting for feedback was delaying the process of completing the series as a whole. It was taking too long to make the shows that the viewers wanted.
Whatever it takes to keep churning those shows out.
h/t The Verge
