I got a call a week or so ago, telling me that I weas “specially selected” to watch a sneak preview fo a new tv show last night at 7:00. I figured it was a scam of sort, and either it would be an infomercial or some sort of religious evangelism.
Turns out it was legit, and it’s a pilot for anew sitcom called Hot Properties. The only star I reconized was Nicole Sullican from MadTV and King of Queens. The specific question I have is, did anyone else see this? The broader question is: Is this a common thing? How exclusive is it?
Great Og. Ignore the rampant typos, please.
Most, if not all, pilots are tested this way. The one I attended had a number of other shows and commercials around the pilot of interest to provide more information about tastes and as a control so that they weren’t just showing a program to an unwarmed audience. I’ve received other invitations since, but the whole thing was too boring to sit through a second time.
I’m not sure it’s “exclusive” at all. They have to send out huge numbers of invites to get sufficient people to attend. I’m not sure what lists they use to generate the invitations, though.
Is there free food? Because if there is, can you get me on the list? 
But seriously, what did you think? This season I started watching LOST, Battlestar Galactica, and EYES in large part because of some folks I know who got to see the early episodes before their premieres and talked them up – thank goodness, because those shows are all really worthwhile.
–Cliffy
I’m not sure if they do this for dramatic shows or only for sitcoms. And, believe me, of the 80-100 sitcom pilots a year that are tried, you definitely don’t want to see 79-99 of them. Not even for free food, which they don’t serve anyway.