How to Write a TV Pilot Script: Acts, Page Counts and the Series Engine

A TV pilot script is the first episode of a series, written to prove the show can run: a half-hour pilot lands at 25 to 35 pages, an hour pilot at 50 to 62, each broken into a teaser, acts and often a tag. To write a tv pilot, you tell one complete episode story while setting up the engine that generates every episode after it.

Updated 2026-09-22 · About 7 sections · 5 answered questions

How to write a TV pilot: the short answer

A pilot has two jobs at once. It tells a complete episode story with a beginning, middle and end, and it establishes the series engine: the situation, cast and conflict that will generate fifty more episodes. Features only have the first job. Most failed pilots do one of the two and forget the other.

The process, in order:

Decide the format. Half-hour or hour, single-camera or multi-camera, streaming or network. Each sets a page count and an act structure.
Write the engine in one paragraph. Who, where, what keeps happening, why it cannot be resolved this week.
Choose the pilot type. A premise pilot shows the engine being built; a typical-episode pilot shows it already running.
Break it into acts with a cliffhanger at every act break.
Write the cold open last. You will only know what it needs to promise once the episode exists.

Everything on the page uses ordinary screenplay elements. If you need those basics, start with how to write a screenplay; this article covers what television adds on top, and the rest of the screenwriting guides cover structure and dialogue at any length.

Half-hour vs hour: page targets by format

Page counts follow runtime, and runtime follows the slot. The one-page-per-minute rule holds for single-camera scripts; multi-camera sitcoms use a double-spaced dialogue format that roughly doubles the page count for the same runtime.

Format	Runtime	Pages	Typical structure
Half-hour single-camera, network	21–23 min	25–32	Cold open, two or three acts, tag
Half-hour single-camera, streaming or cable	25–35 min	28–38	Cold open, loose acts, tag optional
Half-hour multi-camera sitcom	21–23 min	40–55	Cold open, two acts, tag; double-spaced dialogue
One-hour drama, network	42–45 min	50–58	Teaser, four or five acts, sometimes a tag
One-hour drama, streaming or cable	50–60 min	55–62	Teaser and three to five acts, or no marked acts at all

The ceilings are real. A 70-page hour pilot from an unknown writer is read as a writer who does not know the slot. A 22-page half-hour is read as a writer who ran out of story. Check the number as you go rather than at the end; Zen Writer's script statistics show page count and estimated runtime while you write, and the free TV act-break calculator turns a page target into act targets. The broader page-count picture is in how long a screenplay is.

Teaser, acts and tag: what each part does

Acts in television are not the three acts of a feature. They are segments between commercial breaks, and each one must end on a reason to come back. Even on ad-free streaming, where the breaks are invisible, writers keep the shape because it forces escalation every ten pages.

Segment	Hour drama pages	Half-hour pages	Job
Teaser / cold open	2–5	1–3	Hook. Poses the episode question or lands a joke before the titles.
Act One	10–14	8–12	Establish the engine and the episode problem. Ends on the first real complication.
Act Two	10–13	8–12	The obvious solution fails. Stakes rise. Ends on a reversal.
Act Three	10–13	6–10 (if used)	Worst point. Ends on the biggest cliffhanger of the episode.
Act Four (and Five)	9–12 each	—	Resolution of the episode story; the series question is left open.
Tag	1–2	1–2	A button. A joke, a grace note, or the last-second hook for episode two.

The cold open is the part most writers get wrong by treating it as a prologue. It is a promise. In a drama it usually shows the crime, the arrival or the catastrophe that the episode will spend forty pages answering. In a comedy it is a self-contained joke that tells the audience what kind of funny this show is. Either way it should be shootable as a trailer for the pilot.

Act breaks are the pilot's spine. Each one ends on a question the audience needs answered, and the answer at the top of the next act should make things worse, not better. If you can remove an act break without anyone noticing, the act before it was not building to anything.

How to format act breaks in a TV pilot script

Act headings are centred, in caps, and underlined, and each act ends with an explicit marker. Every act begins on a new page. A drama teaser and first act open like this:

                        TEASER

FADE IN:

EXT. HARBOUR SLIPWAY - DAWN

A fishing boat, half sunk. Gulls on the wheelhouse. DET. NIAMH
CARROLL (40s) stands at the waterline, coffee going cold.

                    NIAMH
          Whose boat?

                    UNIFORM
          That's the thing. Nobody's.

                                              CUT TO BLACK.

                    END OF TEASER

Then, on a fresh page:

                        ACT ONE

FADE IN:

INT. CARROLL HOUSE - KITCHEN - MORNING

Niamh, still in last night's coat, pours cereal for a TEENAGE
BOY who does not look up from his phone.

Close each act with END OF ACT ONE (or END OF ACT TWO, and so on) centred beneath the final line, and the final act with END OF SHOW or END OF EPISODE. A tag is headed TAG in the same style. In Zen Writer the act heading is a centred element and the act-end marker sits as a transition, so the layout survives export to PDF and FDX without hand-spacing. Margins, font and the measurements behind them are covered in screenplay margins and font.

Multi-camera sitcom scripts use a different layout: scenes lettered rather than numbered, dialogue double-spaced, action in caps. If you are writing a multi-cam, get a produced script from the show you are targeting and match it exactly, because the conventions vary by production company.

Series engine vs pilot story

The engine is whatever makes episode two, twelve and forty inevitable: a job that brings a new case every week, a family that cannot leave each other, a secret that cannot stay hidden, a goal that takes a season. Write it in one paragraph and be honest about whether it renews. A detective solves her sister's murder is a film. A detective inherits her sister's cold-case unit and every file on the shelf is a week of television is a show.

The pilot story is the episode's own problem, with its own resolution. The engine is set up through the pilot story, not alongside it. The reader should finish the script knowing what the show is without ever having been told.

The trade-off between them is the choice every pilot writer faces:

	Premise pilot	Typical-episode pilot
What it shows	The engine being assembled: the arrival, the hire, the diagnosis, the crash.	The engine already running. Episode one feels like episode seven.
Strength	Maximum change, clear stakes, natural hook.	Proves the show works weekly. What the network will actually make.
Risk	All setup; the pilot is not a representative episode.	Backstory has to be smuggled in; can feel like joining late.
Suits	Serialised drama, high concept, streaming.	Procedurals, workplace comedy, network.

Most strong pilots blend the two: a typical episode that also happens to contain the one change that starts the series. The new recruit's first case; the family dinner on the night the will is read.

Streaming vs network conventions

Network television is written to a slot with ads, so runtime is fixed to the minute and act breaks are load-bearing. Streaming and premium cable have no ads, so episodes can run 28 or 61 minutes, and many scripts drop act headings entirely.

Network: mark every act. Hit the page count. The A-story resolves inside the episode; the B-story can carry over. Language and content are constrained.
Streaming and cable: act headings optional, but keep the escalation rhythm. Serialised A-stories are normal. Page counts have more give, but not unlimited give; a 70-page half-hour is still a problem.
Spec pilots for a portfolio: write the version of your show a network could not make if the idea needs that, but write it tight. Readers judge structure by whether they can feel the act turns whether or not you labelled them.

A pilot rarely travels alone. Expect to be asked for a pitch document or a short series bible: a logline, a one-page overview, character sketches, the engine explained, and a season-one arc with a line or two per episode. Keep it under ten pages and write it after the pilot, not before, because the pilot will change what the show is. A pilot plus bible is what a manager forwards; the pilot alone is what gets read first. If you are querying, how to write a query letter covers the letter that goes on top.

Common TV pilot mistakes

A pilot with no episode. Forty pages of introductions and a cliffhanger. Nothing resolves. The reader cannot tell what a normal episode looks like.
An episode with no series. A tidy story that ends with nothing left to want. It is a short film with act breaks.
Soft act breaks. Acts that end on a scene simply finishing. Every act break should be a question with a cost.
Too many series regulars. Eight named characters introduced in ten pages, none of them distinct. Introduce the leads doing what they do, and let the ensemble arrive as the episode needs them.
The pilot for a different format. Sixty pages with two act breaks and no cliffhangers is a feature's first hour, not an hour of television.
Explaining the premise in dialogue. "As you know, ever since Dad left us the vineyard..." Show the vineyard. Show who resents whom.
Cold open that is only atmosphere. A mood piece before the titles with no question in it. The cold open exists to make the audience stay through the credits.

A last practical note. Pilots are rewritten more than any other script form, because the show keeps redefining itself as you write. Keep a version history. Zen Writer Pro keeps every earlier draft of a script on the device and lets you restore any of them, and the app itself is free on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android from the download page, so the act you cut in draft four is still there when draft six wants it back.

Frequently asked questions

How many pages is a TV pilot script?

A single-camera half-hour pilot runs 25 to 35 pages; a one-hour drama pilot runs 50 to 62. Multi-camera sitcoms use a double-spaced format and land at 40 to 55 pages for the same runtime. Network scripts sit at the low end of each range, streaming at the high end.

How many acts does a TV pilot have?

A network hour drama usually has a teaser and four or five acts, sometimes with a tag. A half-hour comedy has a cold open, two or three acts and a tag. Streaming pilots often drop the headings but keep the same escalation rhythm every ten pages or so.

Do I need act breaks in a streaming pilot?

Not on the page, since there are no ad breaks to serve. Many streaming scripts omit act headings entirely. You still need the structure they enforce: a turn or cliffhanger roughly every ten to twelve pages, or the episode loses momentum. Mark them or not, but build them.

What is the difference between a premise pilot and a typical-episode pilot?

A premise pilot dramatises how the series situation comes to exist, such as the arrival or the diagnosis. A typical-episode pilot shows the show already running so the reader sees what a normal week looks like. Most strong pilots blend the two.

Do I need a series bible to send out a pilot?

Not to get a first read, but expect to be asked for one. A short pitch document, under ten pages, with a logline, overview, characters, the engine and a season-one arc is standard. Write it after the pilot, because writing the pilot will change what the show is.

Ready to turn this idea into a screenplay?

Zen Writer centres act headings, formats teaser and tag markers, and shows the running page count so an hour pilot stays inside its 50 to 62 pages.

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Screenwriting Education

How to Write a TV Pilot Script: Acts, Page Counts and the Series Engine

How to write a TV pilot: the short answer

Half-hour vs hour: page targets by format

Teaser, acts and tag: what each part does

How to format act breaks in a TV pilot script

Series engine vs pilot story

Streaming vs network conventions

Common TV pilot mistakes

Frequently asked questions

Ready to turn this idea into a screenplay?

Continue reading

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How to Write a Query Letter for a Screenplay (With a Full…

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