• Variety, Wednesday, February 25, 2009 9:34 AM

Pilot season is feeling the economy's pain in more ways than one. The sharp downturn is directly influencing the plans of a number of projects for the 2009-10 season, particularly on the comedy side.

Belt-tightening has resulted in more in-house productions at the nets, a rise in lower-cost presentation reels rather than full-blown pilots and a willingness to cut pilots loose quickly if a star or director can't be found. The overall number of projects, which stands now at around 70, is down from 82 in 2007. Everyone's waiting to see if a slew of pilots go away altogether, as the nets decide to save money by trimming rosters.

Talent is one common way to cut costs. For instance, Matt Cherniss, executive vice president at Fox Broadcasting, said his net may surround marquee stars with a supporting cast of more economical unknown actors. Studios also are paying more attention to whether a show has a market outside the U.S. Executives at Sony Pictures TV says they now regularly look to Sony's international sales team before shooting a pilot.

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