U.S. Film Tax Credits and other film and TV incentive program have been heavily criticized as wasteful government programs.

Pennsylvania provided a $5.1 million tax credit to Open 4 Business Productions to film a TV program in Philadelphia.  I thought I would take a quick look at the incentive.

The incentive was to film the medical drama series “Do No Harm” which proposed to generate 100 jobs.  The size of this incentive was identified as the main reason the show was filmed in Philadelphia.

This is what I can tell.  This series received one of the absolute worst ratings of any pilot and was canceled after two episodes.  Instead of seeing Pennsylvania taxpayer funded “Do No Harm” we will see even more episodes of Law and Order SVU in its place.

These film credits are notoriously complex, often with incentives ranging from construction in state, to hiring workers, to buying the rights of musicians who live in state.  I’m not sure how much the states lost or gained from this show.  But it seems clear that the show was terrible.