On the subject of personal progress, I think my ability to write one-liners has definitely improved over the past six weeks.

I've certainly got a lot of work to do in the sketch department though. It's weird - when it comes to Newsjack submissions, I can never seem to replicate the quality of my non-topical sketches, or the ones I send to Newsrevue/Treason.

I think this could be partly psychological - i.e. I'm putting too much pressure on myself to succeed, as the 'prize' of having a sketch performed on BBC radio is so mouth-watering.

Quote: Badge @ March 29 2012, 11:05 PM BST

Blimey, that's quick - maybe you'll have more than one thing in! I'm going to listen later. Well done The Prod.

EDIT: oops, for some reason I thought it started at 11 tonight. So hopefully that explains my post above.

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Thanks! Even though there was less than 5 mins left of the show, part of me was still thinking "maybe I'll also get a correction in, or And Finally"...

Quote: groovydude89 @ March 30 2012, 2:04 PM BST

On the subject of personal progress, I think my ability to write one-liners has definitely improved over the past six weeks.

I've certainly got a lot of work to do in the sketch department though. It's weird - when it comes to Newsjack submissions, I can never seem to replicate the quality of my non-topical sketches, or the ones I send to Newsrevue/Treason.

I think this could be partly psychological - i.e. I'm putting too much pressure on myself to succeed, as the 'prize' of having a sketch performed on BBC radio is so mouth-watering.

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Newsjack has definitely improved my one-liners - it's great to be able to practice those every week.

Re. non-topical - some people are brilliant at both types of sketch, but I know a lot of good writers who are much better at one or the other. Personally I find non-topical sketches much easier to write...which is a bit unfortunate given there aren't any open-door non-topical shows at the moment!

In a bit of Friday afternoon procastination I put the Newsjack credit lists into Excel and got this:

Total number of writers credited: 102

Number of credits obtained:
5 credits2 people
4 credits6 people
3 credits6 people
2 credits16 people
1 credit72 people

[Note - Script editors counted in writing credits for this]

Just looking back at the Q&A they get about 550 e-mails from non-comms so assuming half send both sketchs & one-liners and half don't - that's... about 360 people (*)... So...

To get a credit on a show means you're in the top 8% that week
To get a credit in any show means you're in the top 30%
To get a credit in more than one show means you're in the top 10%
To get a credit in 3 shows or more means ... you're sleeping with the producer

(*) Should say the huge assumption is 360 writers across the entire series - it's probably even higher so the odds are even longer still. And of course I've no idea who's a non-comm or a comm in all that.

Anyway I really should get back to work but I just wanted to find out for myself how hard it is to get a credit on NJ (pretty hard) and then thought I'd share it. You're at least in the top third if you got ANYTHING on, and it's probably an even smaller fraction of people.

So if you got anything on I'd say be very happy with that even if it wasn't the thing you loved most, or couldn't understand why something got on and something else didn't (I know that feeling).

If you got nothing on, don't despair! It's tough and there's a LOT of competition. (I know that feeling).

Besides there's always the next series...

And if you didn't get anything on, it's because there's a conspiracy against you.

There is! I'm so glad you mentioned it - I thought I was going mad for a minute there. Hang on, how did you know about it? Have you been following me? Are you in on this too?

Quote: StephenM @ March 30 2012, 5:01 PM BST

To get a credit on a show means you're in the top 8% that week
To get a credit in any show means you're in the top 30%
To get a credit in more than one show means you're in the top 10%
To get a credit in 3 shows or more means ... you're sleeping with the producer

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I think most people agree on here it's more to do with Newsjack people's personal preference rather than someone who's on the top of the game. I can't help feeling that there's an element of randomness in picking a one-liner anyway-a number of them will be sent in many times by different people.

Quote: StephenM @ March 30 2012, 5:01 PM BST

To get a credit in 3 shows or more means ... you're sleeping with the producer

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I'm sure I didn't sleep with 14 writers this series. Maybe 3 max.

Quote: Tim Azure @ March 31 2012, 8:10 AM BST

I think most people agree on here it's more to do with Newsjack people's personal preference rather than someone who's on the top of the game. I can't help feeling that there's an element of randomness in picking a one-liner anyway-a number of them will be sent in many times by different people.

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Exactly right. Professional writers, comedy actors and producers will all have their own personal preferences. They should think about getting in someone who knows nowt about it, for a more objective view.

And I have it on good authority that it's impossible to get a one liner on Newsjack unless it's been sent in by six different people, because that proves it's funny.

One man's fish* is another man's poison, especially if he types 'poisson' into his iPhone with autocorrect on.

*I changed this from meat for two reasons. (1) Sexual innuendo, (2) The joke won't work with it.

Quote: Tim Azure @ March 31 2012, 8:10 AM BST

I think most people agree on here it's more to do with Newsjack people's personal preference rather than someone who's on the top of the game. I can't help feeling that there's an element of randomness in picking a one-liner anyway-a number of them will be sent in many times by different people.

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Aw, damn - those have us who've got stuff in most of the series thought we'd done so by being on top of the game, but turns out it was nothing to do with that

Quote: StephenM @ March 30 2012, 5:01 PM BST

Total number of writers credited: 102

To get a credit in any show means you're in the top 30%

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Glad to see that the official Newsjack stats and I agree. That made me much happier than it should for any normal human being.

Oh and in light of a 675 e-mail peak in episode 2 and 86 of those writers being non-comm the I reckon the odds of getting any credit in the series is closer to 20%.

And see what they mean about the 'lull', 40% less e-mails for episode 6 than for episode 2. I'm genuinely surprised so many people give up after a few episodes.

Anyway it's just me on here now so goodbye!

Hmmm, some interesting reading, seems there were 4 commissioned writers who suffered the 'recorded but not aired' fate, and also curious that the show with by far the least emails also had the lowest number of commed writers credited.

I couldn't resist having a bit a play with the Newsjack numbers (my day job involves lots of spreadsheets, nuff said)

EpEmailsTotal UsedNon-comms usedTotal ChanceNon-Comm chance
153926214.8%3.9%
267527214.0%3.1%
360621163.5%2.7%
451224184.7%3.6%
548127215.6%4.4%
639924216.0%5.3%
Whole Series U6751028615.1%13.1%
Series Recorded67517015025.2%22.9%

EDIT: I don't know how to stop the columns getting squashed here, sorry.

This assumes that no one submitted over the series but the 675 from episode 2 (so the whole series chances would actually be higher as we know this is unlikely to be true). It also assumes that the number of emails includes those from commissioned writers.

Strictly of course, these shouldn't be called the "chance of getting on" as that assumes that getting on is random, which I certainly don't believe. Better to say your work was in the NJ's team's top 5% or whatever that week.

Neither is there some theoretical "best" material each week as if this was a school exam and each piece was graded! The material that best fits the show that week, in the NJ team's opinion, and that gets the best response is what gets used. This will generally be the "best material" in most people's opinions but there will always be room for disagreement around the edges, comedy is not an exact science.

Also they may well cut stuff they really like because it is no longer topical, the story isn't well enough known, or there were, um, legal issues.

To sum up:
1. It's really not an exact science.
2. If you got something, anything on, you were up against a LOT of competition and should be very happy.
3. If you didn't it doesn't mean your work was no good. And all of us can always get better.

This seems like an apt time to re-read one of the script editor's blogs (from the previous series): http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/posts/newsjack_-_non-commissioned_co

Dan

Quote: swerytd @ April 3 2012, 10:17 AM BST

This seems like an apt time to re-read one of the script editor's blogs (from the previous series): http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/posts/newsjack_-_non-commissioned_co

Dan

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Thanks Dan.

Gareth says what I was trying to say. Only clearer. And with tidier hair.