Let’s dive further into these ideas…

Where and when shows are set often play key roles in the makeup of a series. Settings and time will help determine character attitudes, plotlines, and often themes. It also gives a sense of your show’s scope – is it set in a small town? A moderate-sized hospital? An entirely different alien planet? All of these factors will play roles when it comes to creating an immersive sense of your series for the audience.

As we know, all shows are really about people and their interactions with one another. Studying the things they do and why they do them often lies at the heart of most television series. Make sure your characters are distinct enough from one another so as to easily be able to tell them apart, and further, that they play a crucial role in the fabric of the show and aren’t just there as filler. All characters in shows need purposes.

Identifying the audience demographic for a television show not only clarifies the tone of a series, it’s also significant for the buyers you’re going to be shopping your series to.

For example, a gritty series loaded with sex and violence will most likely not be bought by a standard television network. Conversely, a children’s show will more likely find a home on platforms targeted to a younger audience.

Tone plays a larger part in a series than a lot of people realize. Once you’ve clearly defined your tone, you’ll have a much better sense of the types of stories you’ll be telling with your series and how the characters inside these stories will interact.

Tone also helps in defining which network or platform your series will play on and ultimately pervades every aspect of the show. Tone can also help guide the creative process in terms of how episodes and story arcs should be carried out.

Providing a pilot summary (in beats or paragraphs as opposed to a fully fleshed-out document, that comes later) can be a terrific indicator of what can be expected from the series, as pilots often serve as templates for subsequent episodes. This is a good way to provide an example of what the show will look like on a week-to-week basis.

So we’ve discussed a number of do’s when it comes to pitching a TV series. Let’s talk a bit about some things to avoid in this process…

You want your pitch to be as succinct and to the point as much as possible. Stay away from tangents and threads which could potentially pull attention from the heart and themes of your show. Too much information could actually cost you an audience by spreading their focus over too broad of an area. It can be difficult to get a listener’s attention back once you’ve lost them.

While you’re typically on a clock and want to move your pitch along at a good pace, be careful not to go too fast. Speeding through your pitch could possibly cause you to leave out details and moreover, make you come across as nervous or unconfident in your work.

This one’s a bit of a juggling act and requires some practice, but a key to pitching to multiple people (which is typically what happens when it comes to TV shows) is to keep your audience engaged. One of the most effective ways to ensure your audience is keeping up with you and your story is to keep consistent eye contact as you go along.

There’s an overused slogan that’s overused for a reason and that’s “focus on the positive”. Whether that’s in speaking of how your show will work in comparison to others, or even your own past experiences in how you came to create this idea, always try and focus on the things that work. Positivity tends to breed a more productive work environment and tends to help projects more than a negative attitude.

Although sometimes the lines can get blurred and confused, there’s a difference between arrogance and confidence. Confidence is a healthy trust in yourself and your work to get the job done competently. Arrogance tends to lead to talking down to your audience and creating an unlikable barrier between yourself and them. Arrogance also can create toxicity, which is something you’ll want to avoid at all costs.

Obviously you want your potential buyers excited about your show and eager to see it sold and produced. But be careful not to overload it with exaggerated and grandiose elements that will never come to fruition. This will only lead to disappointment, and quite possibly resentment, in your buyer and ultimately cast doubts about your own ability.

There are a lot of moving parts to successfully pitching a TV series. In addition to having your world, setting, characters, tone and overall episode shape clearly defined, you’ll need to be able to explain your series clearly and concisely to an audience. Even though rejection is an unfortunate part of the process, the proper amounts of resilience, determination, and dedication have proven that getting a show made and aired is not an impossibility. And if one doesn’t sell, you can always try again on the next.