Plan TV and broadcast production with a Gantt chart—scripted series timelines, overlapping episodes, post-production sequences, and live sports planning included.
Television production is not sequential—it is overlapping. While episode 3 is in principal photography, episode 2 is in the editor's room, episode 1 is getting its VFX completed, and episode 4 is in prep with its director. A production coordinator who thinks about one episode at a time is not a production coordinator who lasts long in episodic television. A Gantt chart for broadcast production makes the overlapping episode lifecycle visible, tracks the simultaneous threads of development, production, and post-production, and prevents the one thing that stops a series: missing a delivery deadline to the network or streaming platform.
This guide covers how to build production Gantt charts for scripted series, unscripted/reality content, and live sports broadcasts.
The defining scheduling challenge of episodic television is overlap. At any given point in a season's production, multiple episodes are in different stages of the pipeline simultaneously. Each episode has its own Gantt; the series Gantt stacks them with offset start dates.
Before a single frame is shot, the development phase establishes the creative and business foundation:
Pre-production runs at two levels simultaneously: series-wide setup and per-episode episode prep.
Series-wide pre-production:
Per-episode prep (approximately 8 days for a network hour-long drama):
Production schedules are measured in shooting days. Industry standards:
Each shooting day has a call sheet—issued the night before—listing every scene to be shot, the scenes' locations, the cast called, the time each cast member is needed on set, and the equipment required. The call sheet is the operational document; your Gantt is the strategic document.
WGA and SAG-AFTRA minimums that affect the schedule:
Post-production for a one-hour drama typically runs 10 to 14 weeks per episode—but since episodes deliver on a rolling schedule, post runs simultaneously with photography on earlier episodes.
The standard post sequence per episode:
In a 10-episode series shooting back-to-back, the post-production pipeline must handle multiple episodes simultaneously. A typical state at week 15 of a drama production:
Each of these tasks requires different facilities (color suite, mix stage, VFX vendor) and different human resources. The post-production supervisor's job is to ensure no two episodes are contending for the same resource at the same time. A Gantt chart that shows all episodes' post tracks simultaneously is the only way to see these conflicts before they happen.
Every network and streaming platform has a technical delivery specification that master files must meet before they accept a deliverable. Common requirements:
Delivery date is the hard deadline that drives the entire production schedule. Work backward from delivery to picture lock, then backward from picture lock to photography wrap. Every decision about shooting schedule, post schedule, and VFX scope must be tested against this deadline.
Unscripted production is faster in some phases, slower in others:
Production: Faster—no script, no director's prep, faster shooting days (often 12 to 16 hours of footage per episode day). But coverage ratio (footage shot to footage used) is 30:1 to 100:1, compared to 5:1 to 10:1 for scripted drama.
Post-production: Slower—the story must be found in the edit room. Reality post is editorial-intensive; the editor and producer spend weeks finding the episode's narrative structure from hundreds of hours of footage. Reality post typically runs 8 to 12 weeks per episode.
Documentary series: similar editorial challenges to reality, but with the addition of archival research, clearances for archival footage and music, and narration recording.
Live sports broadcasts look spontaneous on air. Behind the screen, a broadcast of a major sporting event requires a planning cycle that dwarfs most scripted productions:
Venue and rights: Broadcast rights negotiations for major leagues (NFL, NBA, EPL) happen years in advance. The rights agreement defines the production commitment (number of cameras, technical standards, production value requirements).
Facilities planning: Mobile production unit (truck) booking 6 to 12 months in advance for major events. Satellite or fiber venue connection arrangements. Power requirements, parking, and compound layouts for remote truck parking.
Technical infrastructure: Camera systems, cabling, replay servers, graphics systems, and transmission equipment must be spec'd, ordered, and tested 3 to 6 months before airdate.
Staffing: Director, technical director, statisticians, on-air talent, and production staff contracted and confirmed.
Rehearsal: Facility walkthrough and technical rehearsal 1 to 2 days before airdate for major events.
The game day production itself is a sub-24-hour compressed version of all of this planning—your game-day Gantt covers arrival, setup, testing, air, and teardown, all within a single day.
At gantt-chart.io, create one task group per episode, staggered with offset start dates matching your production schedule. Within each episode group, add sub-tasks for development, prep, photography, assembly cut, director's cut, producers' cut, network cut, picture lock, VFX, color, mix, online, QC, and delivery. Mark delivery as a fixed milestone with a hard date.
The overlapping view—all episodes' Gantts on one timeline—is what distinguishes a production Gantt from a shooting schedule. It shows you not just when one episode is in VFX, but when all six episodes are simultaneously demanding VFX resources, which is when you need to negotiate VFX vendor capacity or adjust the delivery schedule.
Free to start. No install required. Export to PDF for network delivery commitments and production company reporting.
Television production is controlled chaos—but it is controlled. A Gantt chart is the instrument that makes the chaos legible and the deadlines survivable.