In a bold move that could rock the entire TV industry, US Network NBC have announced their decision to stop making TV show pilots.

As the writers strike brings Hollywood grinding to a halt, and the price of recording a TV pilot soars to $7 million, NBC have decided to go straight into production with approved scripted series’.

NBC Universal chief executive Jeff Zucker thinks he can save $50m (£25.6m) each year by scrapping them.

“We will still market those scripted series. We are just going to go straight to air with them and cut out the pilots,” he said.

“I think there were a tremendous number of inefficiencies in Hollywood and it often takes a seismic event to change them, and I think that’s what’s happened here,” Mr Zucker told the Financial Times.

The system of producing pilots before recording a TV series was originally intended to weed out the weak and unpopular shows before they hit the airwaves. But with much hyped shows like Journeyman and The Bionic Woman achieving less than impressive ratings last year, I suppose NBC have decided that they can afford to take the risk of producing the odd flop.