What Does a TV Producer Do? A Brief Overview

TV Producer Essentials

Bringing a show to life

There are a number of responsibilities within a TV Producer's job description. In many cases, they are the ones that have been with the project since its inception and jumped through the hoops to get it made.

This includes writing a treatment, writing a pilot, crafting a logline, and assembling a pitch to the network. In our TV Writing and Development masterclass, we walk through each of these processes in detail but we'll cover the basics here on how a TV Producer might take a TV show idea from start to finish.

Developing an Idea

Generating the initial treatment

In many cases, network executives want to see a completed pilot script before they entertain the idea of a greenlight. In other cases, all they want to see is a treatment. Writing a treatment gives any potential buyers and investors a summary of the idea.

Now that we understand what a treatment is how to write one, what comes next? What does a TV Producer do with a treatment? Once a treatment is written and the story beats are ironed out, it's time to focus on the characters. In the next section, we'll go over how to craft compelling characters that will give this series its emotional core.

Character Studies

Designing compelling characters

Audiences might start watching your show because of the story, or maybe even the actors involved, but for them to commit to the series, they need to love the characters. 

One of the TV Producer's job is oversee that from episode to episode (and from season to season), there is character development. To ensure that your characters have that potential, this works needs to start early.

With your characters fleshed out, the story can be crafted around them. The treatment gives us the bones of the story and the character development is bulletproof — next up is to turn these elements into the pilot script. Essentially, everything up until now is theory and the pilot will reveal whether we have a viable idea or not. That's what we'll cover in the next section.

Scripting a Pilot

Writing the pilot

The pilot allows the idea that was roughly shaped in the treatment to become something recognizable in script form. As we learned above, Weiss and Benioff wrote the pilot for Game of Thrones and gave themselves the gargantuan task of adapting George R.R. Martin's dense fantasy novel into episodic television.

Writing a pilot is critical to setting the tone and direction for the entire series. In essence, you're not just writing one episode of TV, you're laying the foundations for (hopefully) entire seasons of TV.

Once the pilot is written, its ready to start trying to sell it. What does a TV Producer do with a pilot? They initiate a marketing campaign of sorts called a "pitch" — which involves meetings with various networks who are looking for new content. 

If there is one element included in a pitch that is of the utmost importance, it is the logline.

Marketing an Idea

Crafting the perfect logline

A logline is a very short description (usually a single sentence) of your entire pilot. We won't get into details on how to write a logline here but it does require a knowledge of the conventions and lots of practice.

With thousands of new ideas floating around Hollywood at any given time, you can see how important it is to craft a logline that cuts through all the noise. 

Writing a logline is deceptively difficult — how difficult is it to write a sentence anyway? It's so difficult, in fact, that we dedicated an entire episode of our TV Writing and Development masterclass to writing the perfect logline.

The logline is key — if you can sell your idea in a single sentence, you will hook any potential buyers immediately. But what does a TV Producer do with a logline? The logline is a necessity in marketing your idea but there is one other element that you'll want to have ready: the show bible. In the next section, we'll dive into this crucial document.

Expanding The Idea

Formulating a show bible

So far, you've written a treatment, a pilot, and a logline but there is on more essential element left — the show bible. When networks consider turning an idea into a TV series, they need to have foresight. 

They aren't just committing to one episode, they're committing to many. And even if the pilot is a dynamite idea, does it have legs? The show bible lays out the potential for this idea in the long run. 

Now, with everything you've generated so far, it's time to bring these materials to the people with the power to make this idea a reality. In other words, it's time to pitch! In the next section, we'll go over what it means to be "good in the room" and how to win over "the suits" with a brilliant idea.

How To Pitch

Presenting the ideal pitch

Even though a TV Producer literally "runs the show," they first have to get this idea sold to a network. This is where the pitch comes. Armed with their treatment and/or pilot, the show bible, and the logline, the producer lays out their entire vision for the show.

But here's the trick — a great idea needs to be presented and that's where mastering the pitch process becomes vital. You've probably heard the phrase "good in the room," which means that your presentation of the idea is just as good as the idea itself. 

With a successful pitch, you can win over the network executives and land yourself a TV show. It's that simple! We barely scratched the surface here on explaining what does a TV Producer do. Don't forget to join the TV Writing and Development masterclass to expand these ideas with additional resources like downloadable templates.

Up Next

What Does an Associate Producer Do?

Now that we've gone through the basics on what does a TV Producer do, let's move on to the next type of producer: the Associate Producer. What is the role of the Associate Producer (or AP), and how to their duties and responsibilities fit in with the other producers on a give project. All be will be answered here.  

Up Next: What's an Associate Producer? →