Pitch Your Pilot Challenge Winners

It's a sad coincidence that this Challenge came out during the Hollywood writer's strike, but we've decided that the timing is perfect as maybe our Creators will want to jump into the writing game when the terms are set and the pay is more fair. So, consider this a practice pitch for the real thing, though in truth, so many of these were exceptional to the point that we'd love to see them on television. If only we had that power... Alas, we are just a team of writers and readers who love reading what you send us, though we did consult with a screenwriter for this contest (they aren't technically allowed to look at scripts at the moment so we'll keep their name a secret:)

These pitches were really, really funny. Uproarious not just in their creativity, but also in the writing of the pitches themselves. The very best gave us a sense of the writer as well as the show. There's always room in every piece of writing for the author's voice to come out outside of the message itself. It's a tricky thing to pull off but once you see it, you understand its power.

If we had a Vocal TV division, this would have been the start of a lot of shows. These pitches were awesome, funny, ingenious, witty, addictive. Here are the winners of the Pitch Your Pilot Challenge. You can check out the full list of winners HERE.

$500 Grand Prize Winner

Adam Steininger for Thrones of Success

The setup of this show is brilliant. A la Michael Scott, we all love a lovable, serious, goofy boss who may or may not deserve their spot at the top. There's a true art to spoofing current trends (Game of Thrones and Succession), but making the show feel timeless, less like a flash in the pan riding the wave of some trend and more like a show that you can revisit over and over, that's the difficult part, and we feel from this pitch that Thrones of Success could indeed have a long run. The premise is well thought out, the characters all differentiated and important, and the setting is the perfect combination of stable and unstable, allowing viewers to feel comforted as they watch but also presenting the show's writers with new plot opportunities every episode. Congratulations, Adam Steininger!

$250 Second Place Winner

Morgan Rhianna Bland for Good Cop, Dead Cop

The cop procedural has been around for so long because it presents endless possibilities within a system that the common citizen doesn't know much about but is very much affected by. Police operate behind closed doors. They have power and procedure and we all know that there is often too much shadow surrounding their practices. So when a show comes along that can teach us about policing and do it in a way as fresh and exciting and strange as Good Cop, Dead Cop, we had to take notice.

The setup for the show is creative and new, one we never would have thought of. And it's always a great idea to have a subplot begin in the first episode, something the audience can keep track of and follow between the laughs. This show does all of that and more. Congratulations, Morgan Rhianna Bland!

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Check out more of our Challenges below: