It’s pilot season and in the economic gloom of the US, TV channels are looking to cheer everyone up with more comedies next season.  Of the 71 scripted pilots on offer to the main five networks, 33 are half hour comedies. And multi-camera studio shooting is back as the preferred way to record in front of a live audience.  When once only CBS held out against the more popular single camera shoot, NBC’s Angela Bromstead said, “When you look at what’s working and what is standing in a very crowded environment, the multi-cameras on CBS are doing very well and prove that it’s not a dying format.”.

Comedies are also reflecting the climate, shows like, Canned, about a group of friends fired on the same day, and a Kelsey Grammer pilot about a wall street tycoon forced to stay home. Reality shows too are seeing the potential, with Mark – The Apprentice – Burnett’s, Shark Tank, about entrepreneurs competing for finance, and Househusbands of Hollywood,  well, you can guess how that one goes.

And a strange mix of everything in Fox’s, Someone’s Gotta Go, a reality show where real staff are told there are to be lay-offs and the twist is - who goes, they decide!!  Somehow, I don’t think it’s bitten that hard there.

Cheers.