They were cornered by something called a "pilot commitment" -- which

means, essentially, that at some point someone at the network agreed to

pay a huge penalty (something pretty close to the cost of producing a

pilot) if they didn't produce the pilot. So, faced with the prospect of

paying one-million-two for a something and one-million-one for nothing,

they thought, "Okay, what the heck. Make it. But we hate it. But make

it. Even though we hate it..."