Amazon’s second round of original pilots seems to have gone well — Variety is reporting that four of the five non-kids show pilots the company unveiled last month for feedback from the public have been ordered to series. This includes “Transparent,” the half-hour family comedic drama from “Afternoon Delight” director Jill Soloway that quickly became a huge critical favorite.
Variety reports that Chris Carter’s apocalypse saga “The After,” Michael Connelly detective story “Bosch” and Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman’s comedy “Mozart in the Jungle” have also gotten series orders (no word on the children’s pilots yet). Sports comedy “The Rebels,” which we’d pegged as the worst of the bunch, is apparently going to be left hanging.
READ MORE: Why ‘Transparent’ Creator Jill Soloway Feels the Amazon Pilot Process is ‘Revolutionary’
Amazon has yet to confirm this news, so we’ll be updating this article soon as there’s official word from the company. Amazon first tried out this online pilot process last year with eight comedies, two of which — “Alpha House” and “Betas” — were ordered to series based on data and feedback collected from viewers. But the process is not an “American Idol”-style one in which the pilots with the most votes wins — as Myles McNutt notes, there were the number of votes and scores of the five pilots around the time that Amazon took them offline on Sunday night:
The After – 10916 – 7.8/10
Bosch – 10151 – 8.8/10
Mozart in the Jungle – 3343 – 8.4/10
The Rebels – 3347 – 8/10
Transparent – 2675 – 7.3/10
“Transparent” actually has the lowest score of the five, with the fewest votes, but generated the most buzz in journalistic outlets and serves as Amazon’s best bet to be taken seriously as a rival to cable channels as a purveyor of high-end television. Here’s hoping Variety is right — “Transparent” is a series we’d love to see more of.
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