Screenwriting : By industry standards... by John Mezes

I don't know what you mean by, "industry standards."

Here are page formatting examples of current tv shows on netflix and prime time networks. They are all specific to their own show.

https://www.wgfoundation.org/blog/2021/3/26/formatting-your-spec-script-...

There is no 'industry standard'. Your job as a tv writer is to hold the viewer to the advertisement and and leave them wanting more (at least until the next ad).

Thank you Dan and Doug. Appreciate the feedback.

Interestingly enough, this is an area where I feel a standard actually does exist (at least with a lot of network people). I had a working TV exec (high profile show) send me a template for an hour long pilot almost identical to this in structure;

Teaser > commercial > Act I > commercial > Act II > commercial > Act III > commercial > Act IV > commercial > tag

They also detailed a lot on A, B, and C plots and how they should breakdown proportionally.

I feel TV is something the industry really has dialled in to maximise advertising potential.

That all said. I don't see how a page or two here or there makes any difference at a script level. There's no point going all Save The Cat on it. Also, what Doug says is ultimately true; the main thing is getting people to those commercial break cliff hangers, kicking off compelling plots, and suggesting interesting character arcs.

There's also this - SPEC PILOTS DON'T REALLY MATTER. This is assignment/writers room level thinking. Nobody is looking at a spec pilot and taking it seriously as anything close to something final. In my experience, show-runners generally don't even want to see them. The Show Bible is where most of the effort and consideration should go. The only people pushing spec pilots are paid services that host/grade/pitch them.

Thank you Morris and CJ. Very helpful.

CJ Walley Plus for streaming TV, there are no commercials, so I think the structure can be a bit looser. You are trying to hook people on the story, without the need to make sure that they come back after the commercial.

I've mixed feelings on streaming which often gets brought up as a caveat in discussions like these. Most IP owners I know of depend on long-term global sales to maximise profits and that binds you back into traditional setups because, while you may get a US Domestic streaming deal, a lot of foreign deals are likely to be on broadcast/cable TV networks. That said, if you are planning to sell to the likes of Netflix, regional deals pretty much go out the window. Personally, I'd always be trying to give my investor's the best odds.

I'm beginning to see commercials creep into on line streaming.

I use my comps for page breakdowns. For example, I compare FAIRE to Netflix's Sex Education, and so broke down the pilot to figure out its structure, and then used that structure for my own. If you want checks and balances, you can do this for 3-5 comps, and see if different structures suit it better.