So this is how badly Fox wants to develop new hit sitcoms: it is holding a script contest.

It is doing so for the second year in a row, actually. In a partnership with the New York Television Festival, the network will solicit scripts from aspiring writers, with the promise of a development deal for the winner.

On Monday the festival is expected to announce that a production company is also participating in the contest this year, making it more likely that the winning idea will make it from script to screen.

The four-year-old festival, held each September, tries to replicate the independent film festival circuit for small screen content creators. Fox and other networks are sponsors of the event.