Hey guys,

I thought I'd open a thread here to discuss the topic in the title and see if we can collect some views from people who primarily write for the silver screen.

I got to read quite a few tv pilots recently for an evaluation and I felt most of them failed in the basic structure. I'm not an expert myself, but as I write 90% tv pilots and episodes I have read alot about this topic and tried to include the knowledge I'm winning along the way into my pieces.

So what does tv structure look like? I guess there's no simple answer to this, because there are several different formats and it depends a lot on what the different broadcasters demand. Act breaks are usually the points during a tv show where commercials are shown, so from all the info I could gather it seems like four or five acts are stndard for most networks. Rarely there are even six acts with pages counts of 6-7 per act. Most shows also have a short teaser just before act one, which is about 3 to 4 pages long and introduces the theme of the episode or shows the inciting event like a murder in a crime show for example. It's a small appetizer to get the audience interested in this episode.

So I think the very basic rules of thumbs are:

- A tv episode of a 1-hour-drama show shouldn't have much more than 50 pages. If the show is supposed to run for an hour, there needs to be some time left for commercials between the acts.

- If we count in the teaser of lets say 4 pages, that leaves 46 pages to devide into 4 (or 5) acts, which means acts will be roughly 9 to 11 pages in length. What I found is: the shorter, the better. If you can tell the story of the episodes in just 40 pages plus 3-4 pages for a teaser, fine - that leaves more room for ads.

Now, what makes an act an act? I think we all know the save the cat structure for features where we get quite fine-grained plot points as a definition of a good structure which is usually split into 1/4 for Act One, 2/4 for Act Two and 1/4 for Act Three. For TV scripts, I think acts work in a different way. They are quite short (~ 10 pages) compared to a feature act (~ 30 pages for Act I and III and ~60 pages for Act II), so there is not all too much room for twists and premise changes within a single act.

In TV scripts I think acts have to be connected to each other. I don't know if you guys know the Snowflake method, I heard of it the first time several years ago when I was trying myself in writing novels. Basically, the idea is to start small, like sum up your entire story in a single sentence. After that, think of 3,4,5 side plots and write a single sentence for each of them as well. Next step, extend your sentences to paragraphs. You get the idea.

I think this works perfectly well for developing TV scripts, with some slight modifications. I usually start with a premise (the situation before the events in my script took place) and a final situation (what is the situation after the events in my script took place). That way I got a very rough outline for my first and last act already. Now I try to add two (or three, based on how many acts) obstacles or turning points, twists or gamechanging reveals in the middle. That way, if I'm lucky, I end up with 4-5 sentences which are a very rough outline for my script. Transforming those sentences into the actual script is part of the fun work for me, and often takes less time than figuring out ideas for the different acts so that they make an interesting story.

Every act needs to end with a climax then, while the next act picks up the changes to my world from the last act from a different perspective. From many TV shows I enjoyed to watch I learnt those climaxes (just before the add breaks fire) are either cliffhangers (damnit, it's a commercial break again, but I want to know how it continues) or important events which turn the show's world upside down like a scene which implies some important character could have died or a secret might have been revealed, basically anything which adds momentum and keeps the audience hooked to come back after the commercial break.

As this is really a topic I'd like to know as much as possible about, it would be great if any of the more experienced people here would add to this or correct me where I'm wrong.

Waiting for your thoughts, guys.

Hey, I try to give some input --
be aware that I'm not experienced on this subject.

These are merely some points I remember from reading here and there and I don't pretend to be right by any means.  Your post reads like a mix of everything, so I just add on some things that I "believe to know better", or I add on points you already made. I'll stay away from series development and content completely.

The first commercial break starts a little later, or, better said, there's always more runtime in first act to drag viewers in and keep them from changing the channel early. That shows in the scripts already. Including the teaser, the first act could be up to 22 pages easily. After the first break, each further act is shorter, up to 13 pages or even less. In some formats the last act is about 5 pages only because of a truly big cliffhanger forcing the viewer to stay for another commercial break even knowing the show's almost over. It can include an added "next on ShowXY sequence".

What I also experienced is that the formula 1 page is 1 minute of film is definitely not working. Most shows, crime, hospital, mystery, drama etc. work with a lot of dialogue, often quickly spoken. So, a 56 page script could mean 43 min. runtime only. If you want to know what's truly going on in those dialogue heavy genres, you probably would need to measure the time. There's simply no balance between action and dialogue.

One commercial break is 7-8 min. So, having 4 acts, with 3 breaks, gives 21-24 minutes of advertising. When I add the industry standard of 40-43 minutes pure runtime, we'd almost precisely have a 60 minutes show.


That said, I'm not so sure if a spec script should be presented with those structural decisions at all!!! I simply don't know if it's necessary to imply when to air commercials while it's more important to look for general possible potential of the project at this stage. I've no clue here... just saying...


As you said, shows indeed work with a lot of cliffhangers. Apart from the act change almost every scene potentially ends with a mystery or a major resolution about what was and what will be. At least every sequence does. So, a clever editing concept, from our screenwriter's perspective, is a strong tool and shows knowledge about that specific format.

@ not to forget that non-commercial broadcaster, internet series or pay TV works different of course

Best of luck with your stuff,
and send some more info to expand this thread if you like. An interesting topic in my eyes - there's nothing to read about on this board yet, I think.

Hello prussianMosby,

thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree with most of what you say. Time for commercials during a show is probably completely different for every broadcaster or network, so in no way one should focus on getting the ad breaks at the right page counts when writing a TV spec script. However I think it is important in an original pilot spec script to outline your ability to think in a distinctive act structure. Not only does it make the crafting of the script easier but anybody who reads it will notice that you know what tv structure is all about. Probably a no-brainer but if you write spec episodes for existing shows you might want to check a few real scripts of that show and adapt to the used structure there.

What you say about cliffhangers, I think ending every scene with one would be overkill. Too much action and twists packed into any script turns the audience off quickly. This is even more true in feature scripts. You need to give the audience time to breathe and time to settle into the world of your current act only to shock or grab them even more with a good climax at the end of an act. This is a completely different thing for slapstick/sitcoms which highly rely on pushing out gags one after another. But in a 1-hour drama your goal is to make the audience believe in the world you are creating, they need to be able to imagine this world could be real. Too many climaxes quickly make such a world feel unrealistic in my opinion.

Try watching just about any 1-hour show and pay attention on the key moments of an episode. When you count the key moments you will realize you counted the number of acts this episode was outlined for.

Quoted from Equinox Time for commercials during a show is probably completely different for every broadcaster or network.

Sorry, man, I think I have fucked that up. The US market works different, with one or two more breaks, which makes it clear why there are up to 6 acts in some scripts. Each break is just shorter. Much more variation on the advertising market too.

Quoted from Equinox What you say about cliffhangers, I think ending every scene with one would be overkill. Too much action and twists packed into any script turns the audience off quickly.

Yeah. I also think of small things, transitions. It could be a line of dialogue. A kind of teaser, key words foreshadowing something; connecting both scenes through a certain context. A fearful look, an expectation raised that immedietely will be destroyed then, especially before changing locations and switching between characters in conflict.

Sometimes scenes just end to start a new scenario of course.

Quoted from PrussianMosby Yeah. I also think of small things, transitions. It could be a line of dialogue. A kind of teaser, key words foreshadowing something; connecting both scenes through a certain context. A fearful look, an expectation raised that immedietely will be destroyed then, especially before changing locations and switching between characters in conflict.

Well, an act of lets say 10 to 13 pages doesn't give that much opportunities for climaxes like those you mention, without kicking the audience out. In my opinion, a good script for a TV show always has the right mix of 'seemingly trivial' action. For example, characters could eat something and talk about something irrelevant to the main plot, only to have a killer run into the diner and take hostages at the end of that 13 pages act. Having characters talk about their relationship problems for several minutes brakes down the action and shows a world which is familiar to the audience. Just when they are about to settle in this familiar environment, it's time to throw things around and confront them with something they don't know from their own experience. This is the time where suddenly an alien machine attacks the town and the neighbour's house explodes as it is hit by a laser cannon.

I believe just using the right pace (and pace changes) in a script makes it much easier to drive the audience into actually buying the world they see.