CEO Jeff Zucker announced yesterday that NBC will be drastically cutting their pilot program…as in cutting it into non-existance.

In an effort to save the almighty dollar, the Peacock network will not be producing pilots for the upcoming season. Now, it’s likely that all of the major networks will cut back this year as well, due to the strike, but NBC is wanting this to be a permanent change. Zucker says that the network could save up to $50 million a year by killing pilot production…”Sometimes you see the world from a different perspective when you’re flat on your back. At NBC Entertainment we’ve been flat on our backs for the last few years.”

You can’t make this crap up.

Is NBC Universal really in this much financial trouble? I can see scaling back on pilots…maybe not spending an astronomical amount, and giving them a budget more representative of the one the show will have when it is on the air. But how can some of the truly revolutionary shows be pitched effectively?

Think about it this way…shows like Law & Order don’t really need a pilot to pitch a new spinoff…you’ve got the idea of what to expect. But how do you get a feel for a truly groundbreaking show like, say, Pushing Daisies, without a pilot? “See, it’s a show about a guy who can touch dead things and bring them back to life, but then if he touches them again, they go back to being dead, but if he doesn’t touch them, something else has to die, and it’s told with this really surreal style…” Yeah, you get my drift. You can do that, or you can show them how it’s actually going to look onscreen.

Am I way off base on this? Is it not as big a deal as I’m making it out to be? Or has NBC finally gone off the deep end?