This year’s broadcast network development season is following the trend of recent years. Deadline.com reports that the networks have been fairly restrained in their buying this year, following a pattern that started with the 2012 pitch season, “with fewer big bidding wars and mind-boggling commitments.”

Fox, with the greatest need for new shows, has been the most aggressive buyer this year, the report notes, with the only straight-to-series order, for Ryan Murphy’s “Scream Queens.”

“The broadcast nets have cooled off on direct-to-series commitments after a string of shows that have not worked or had been scrapped before the premiere, including Fox’s ‘Hieroglyph,’ NBC’s ‘Emerald City’ and ABC’s ‘Members Only,'” the report notes.

Top drama showrunners such as Murphy, Vince Gilligan and Carlton Cuse are in hot demand, from both cable and broadcast nets, the piece adds.

“With many of television’s proven showrunners tied to series (or off doing movies like J.J. Abrams), there was some sense of quiet panic among drama executives, especially early in the buying season,” the article reports. “The shortage of available big-name drama writing talent was at least in part responsible for the reversed pattern this season, with comedy buying done first and drama pitching, which traditionally wraps before comedy, lingering well into October, putting pressure on getting hourlong scripts finished and ready for pilot pickup consideration by end of December.”

We urge you to click on the link in the first paragraph, above, to read Deadline.com’s full report.