Anyone Can Pitch Adult Swim In These Public Pitch Sessions

If you’re a would-be show creator with a golden idea and nerves of steel, Adult Swim wants to know. The broadcaster is doing what networks rarely (if ever) do: taking pitches from amateurs — in public.

Adult Swim has been live-streaming pitching sessions which anyone can apply to participate in, and which are viewable to all. These “Development Meetings” take place almost every Thursday at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET. Anyone can join: they just need to submit a one-page pitch outline along with any other materials they wish to show — animatics, art portfolios, whatever — then log into the session, ready to talk.

Selected contestants get feedback from the Adult Swim team, which includes current and former executives like Mike Lazzo, Walter Newman, and Cameron Tang. Creators such as Genndy Tartakovsky and Eric Andre sometimes join too. Every week, the strongest pitch is awarded $500. Some receive more than that: in the case of Skeleton Landlord, a cgi-live action hybrid, the pilot episode shown in the pitch ended up on Adult Swim’s Youtube channel.

These meetings are plainly a great opportunity for those with a pitch-ready idea for a show. They also offer a chance for all aspiring creators to learn from the contestants’ strengths and mistakes, and to hear hours of feedback from established pros. The Adult Swim team’s banter between pitches contains pearls of advice, too. Many contestants would benefit from listening to development assistant Jordan Askins: “You might get so caught up in the rules and backstory and miss … the core of your show.”

Development Meetings are subsequently archived (check them out on Adult Swim’s website or Youtube channel). Watch a session with Tartakovsky below. To find out more, click here.

Correction: this article initially stated that the live-streamed Development Meetings began in the pandemic. They have in fact been running since before then, and the article has been updated to reflect that.