How Long Should Your TV Pitch Be?
Many screenwriters are surprised to find that the typical pitch is longer than they were expecting.
Welcome to my Weekly Email Newsletter! Every Friday I do a deep dive on an aspect of the business of screenwriting from a literary manager’s perspective.
Today’s post is for subscribers only. If you’re new here, I recommend checking out the free posts at this link for a sample of what this newsletter has to offer.
Otherwise, keep reading for my insights on pitching!
As a literary manager, I help my clients prepare pitches for major producers, TV studios, broadcast networks, and streamers.
A typical successful pitch runs about 20 minutes.
Some go a little bit longer, but really you should have a tight cutoff at absolutely no more than 25 minutes.
But you don’t want your pitch to be too short either. Anything shorter than 15 minutes, and you’re going to leave out crucial information that your audience wants to hear before they make a decision about whether to buy your show.
Generally, a pitch meeting is in an executive’s calendar for an hour.
This leaves time to have small talk at the beginning, then pitch for 20 minutes. Then they have plenty of time to ask you questions and have a conversation about your idea at the end.
But sometimes the executive is more pressed for time.
They might have a “hard out” after 30 minutes, meaning if your pitch is too long, they won’t have time to ask questions.
But don’t take this personally if they simply leave without having much of a conversation. It could simply be that they have another meeting to get to.
You might not think you have enough to say for 20 minutes, but you will if you incorporate this information:
Step 1: Introduce yourself with a personal anecdote that explains why you’re interested in the world of the show and why you’re the best person to tell this story.
Step 2: A brief summary of what the show is (genre, format) and what the main longline is (try to say this naturally rather than making it sound like something you are reading from the page).
Step 3: An overview of the main 2-3 characters in your show.
Step 4: Overview of the pilot story in broad strokes.
Step 5: Overview of the plot arc of the series in broad strokes.
Step 6: A few sentences about what happens in season 2.
Step 7: A few sentences about what happens in seasons 3 and beyond.
Step 8: Any more information about the tone, world, or visuals.
Step 9: Themes and Why Now?
Why is this subject matter something that the world urgently needs in this exact moment? Why can’t it wait?
Why will it resonate with audiences?
A Word of Caution:
If your pitch is running too long, do NOT speed up how fast you talk.
Instead, go through the materials of your pitch and see what you can cut out. Where can you more efficiently make your points? Which elements can you skip altogether? Maybe there’s some information that you can save to talk about at the end if an executive asks about it during the Q&A portion of the pitch.
If you talk faster, your listener will disconnect and feel bored.
Ironically, rushing through your pitch will make it drag and feel slower.
Deliver your pitch in a patient, methodical pace. You are a storyteller after all. The goal should be to deliver a narrative experience to your listener.
That will make them trust that you can deliver a narrative experience in the TV writing format as well.
Want personalized feedback on your pitch from me?
Click the link below to book a one-on-one Practice Pitch Consultation!
This will be useful for writing pitches for my fiction.