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HUFFINGTON
03.16-23.14
TV
THE NETWORKS
The following breaks down one-hour dramas and dramatic miniseries that debuted on HBO, Showtime, AMC, FX and Netflix
since 1975, when HBO began programming. The people included are the creators, writers or narrative architects of a show
when it debuted. When a “created by” title was available, it was used. When it was not, the writer was used. When neither was
availa ble, the networks were asked to identify the person who served as narrative architect at the time of a program’s launch.
HBO
2.6%
NON-WHITE
MEN
8%
SHOWTIME
26%
WHITE
WOMEN
WHITE
WOMEN
89.4%
74%
WHITE
MEN
38
NARRATIVE
ARCHITECTS
WHITE
MEN
23
NARRATIVE
ARCHITECTS
the air. If that happens, swell.
But what little change is
happening has been glacial in
most areas.
According to the most recent
stats from the Writers Guild of
America, about 30.5 percent of
TV staff writers are women, and
about 15.6 percent of TV writers are
people of color; both numbers represent modest gains from the past.
San Diego State University’s Center
for the Study of Women in Television and Film, which uses a different calculation method, puts the
percentage of female TV writers for
the 2012-13 season at 34 percent.
Yet according to SDSU’s
FX
AMC
4.5
%
WHITE
WOMEN
95.5%
WHITE
MEN
22
NARRATIVE
ARCHITECTS
NETFLIX
9%
NONWHITE
WOMEN
91%
WHITE
MEN
11
NARRATIVE
ARCHITECTS
most recent study, 27 percent
of women bear the title executive producer, and 24 percent
are a “creator” — numbers that
have remained stagnant for a
long time. In the 2010-11 season,
“just 24 percent of the pilots in
the pipeline for the season had at
least one woman writer attached,
while only 9 percent of the projects had at least one minority
writer,” according to the WGA.
A reminder: At the prestige
networks, in the dramatic arena,
those numbers are generally lower. A lot lower.
Years of writing about these
issues and talking to writers and
producers on and off the record
have made a few things clear: Far
too many in Hollywood are will-
33%
WHITE
WOMEN
67%
WHITE
MEN
3
NARRATIVE
ARCHITECTS