Something funny happened to me two weeks back. I got a call from my agents that CBS had requested to see me for a new sitcom. The reason I found this funny is that my last pilot season was a lonely one– all of my industry attention was from theatre and film, and none from television. It’s not an uncommon experience, especially for New York actors, but hey– I want to be on TV as much as the next guy!
So what was CBS doing casting a new television series at a point on the calendar about as far from pilot season as one can possibly get? The answer is the title of this post. Before I explain further let me first give you some background.
Big parts on television shows are known as “series regular” roles. For example, the six actors that comprised the friends on “Friends” were the series regular roles for that show. Everybody else was at best a “recurring” character, which means a big part that appears in more than one episode, but not all of the episodes. Tens of thousands of actors thirst after a series regular role for very obvious reasons.
When a new television show is born only a single episode is created. This is called the “pilot” episode. When the pilot is cast the series regular roles are filled. Everybody involved works as hard as they can on the pilot in the hopes that the finished product will please a network and get “picked up.” Most pilots never make it that far. The lucky pilots that do receive an “order” from a network, usually for either a half season (13 episodes) or a full season (26 episodes). At this point the show goes into full production, churning out episode after episode. As each new episode is completed it airs and then the network assesses how the series is doing in the ratings. If it’s doing poorly the network will usually cancel the rest of their order. If the series is doing well the network will try any number of things to make the series more effective such as, for example, moving it to a more desirable time slot.
All television series eventually get canceled. The only question is how long the series lasts before this happens. Most get canceled within nine months of being picked up.
When a network cancels an episode it is left with a gap in its broadcast schedule that it must fill. So the first definition of “mid-season replacement” is a show that gets a green light because another show bit the dust. When I went in to CBS two weeks ago it was to audition for a role in what the network hopes will be a mid-season replacement. Clearly some other show they had pinned their hopes on was going to be cancelled and now they were going to Plan B.
Sometimes when a network views a pilot it decides to tweak the show before picking it up. Often, and regrettably, this involves replacing some of the actors from the pilot with different actors. The new actors may be celebrities that the network hopes will draw in additional viewers, but not always.
Occassionally these tweaks get made only after a series has started to air. Generally when this happens the series is already in the jaws of cancellation and the network is merely delaying the inevitable. But whatever the reason, this is the second meaning of mid-season replacement!
