![]() ![]() Essentially, they “pinpointed the episode for each show’s season 1 for which 70% of viewers who watched it went on to complete the entire run.” While this doesn’t tell us what hooked viewers necessarily, as Netflix argued, it’s useful in understanding how viewers behave under the new “binge release” model that streaming has popularized. While their analytics are based entirely on watching behaviors, they can still glean some overall insights for example, they were able to figure out where the “hook” in a TV show’s first season was. While Netflix algorithmically predicts what a viewer will like based on their watch history, offering a “match” percentage on content, they do not offer a space for comments, or even show user popularity ratings. Some platforms, like Netflix, base their analyses entirely on behavior. The rise of digital media has led to an enormous uptick in behavioral data from viewers: are they watching? Are they engaging? How are they engaging? More often than not, these insights are not limited to the pilot testing process but are gathered from regular viewing audiences. ![]() We didn’t have social media, on-demand streaming, OTT content creators, or artificial intelligence (I’ll leave you to decide how much human intelligence we had then versus now). So, is pilot testing important?īefore, we answer that question, let’s remember of the purpose of the pilot test. The pilot test is intended to evaluate the potential viability of a television series based on the first episode. At the end of every pilot testing season, before sharing the results of the pilot testing research, I would tell the network executives that we assume every pilot tested is being picked up for series and that our analysis would tell what’s working and what’s not and why. Sometimes issues in the pilot may not be issues in a series and vice versa. The job of the pilot test is to understand the audience’s reaction to the content. Of course, in 1989, when Seinfeld was first put in front of test audiences, researchers were crunching through 7,000-8,000 data points using both qualitative and quantitative data from focus groups, cable screenings and survey audiences. They saved Seinfeld, and they gave us Elaine. Pilot tests didn’t almost kill Seinfeld, as some who want to dismiss a bad response from a test audience will claim. Enter Elaine, who acts as “one of the boys” and serves as a guide for the audience on how to relate to each of these quirky characters. It turns out that a show about three largely unlikeable and generally unappealing men isn’t going to hit it out of the park with a majority-female prime time audience. The pilot test told the creators of Seinfeld that the show they created would not be a winner, but more importantly, it told them why. What people don’t talk about is the fact that a discrepancy between the apparent test results and the show’s outcome does not mean that the test got it wrong. Seinfeld did not perform well when it was first screened for a small focus group, so I figure I’ll just come out of the gate with it: sometimes the initial pilot test results aren’t an indicator of the television show’s success. It seems that any article discussing TV Pilot testing must necessarily reference the fact that
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