10 Most Expensive TV Show Pilots Ever
6. The Get Down - $16 Million
In 2017, Netflix made the call to cancel The Get Down after just eleven episodes. The decision came not as a result of poor reviews (in fact the series was widely praised), but as a result of the series' astronomical production costs.
Each episode of the musical drama set the streaming giants back $16 million and while the show did develop a small cult following, it wasn’t justifiable to make a follow-up.
And that’s a shame, because The Get Down was very good and only got better with every episode. It's unsurprising that the show did come at a price though. Baz Luhrmann served as executive producer, and the director of Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby is renowned for going all out on his projects. High production values were required to effectively recreate 1970s New York, plus all the original songs and covers didn’t come cheap either.
The series also featured a stellar cast, including the likes of Justice Smith, Shameik Moore, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jimmy Smits, Jaden Smith, Daveed Diggs and Giancarlo Esposito. All the talent for sure took a toll on the budget.