If You Want a Gender-Balanced Staff, Hire a Woman as Showrunner
Nearly half of the most-popular TV series of the 2024-25 season have met ReFrame’s gender-balanced criteria to achieve the latest ReFrame Stamp.
ReFrame, launched in 2017 by Sundance Institute, WIF (fka Women In Film Los Angeles) and IMDbPro, has awarded its approval to 45 of the top 100 TV series, including Hacks, The Bear and The Pitt (full list below). All told, gender-balanced hiring in TV has rebounded by 6.5 percent from last year’s lull, which had been the worst since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The takeaway here: If you want a balanced staff, hire a woman as showrunner. Nearly 93 percent of series with women showrunners qualified for the ReFrame Stamp.
It’s not just about good vibes, either — it’s good business. The organization further found that ReFrame-Stamped series have 1.33 million more viewers, on average, than their non-Stamped counterparts.
You Might Also Like
Women, nonbinary and trans directors shot nearly 36 percent of episodes this year, a slight increase from 2023-2024. Unit production managers, first assistant directors and DPs (directors of photography) saw historic highs for these underrepresented groups, while line producers and composers went in the opposite direction.
For a while now, comedies have been the standout genre for gender-based representation. This year, five of the eight Emmy nominees for best comedy series received the Stamp: Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Hacks, Nobody Wants This and Only Murders in the Building (leaving out Shrinking, The Studio and What We Do in the Shadows). Just two, The Diplomat and The Pitt, of the eight Emmy-nominated series in the best drama category got ReFrame’s award; the other nominees in the category are Andor, The Last of Us, Paradise, Severance, Slow Horses and The White Lotus.
The limited/anthology series category saw the majority of its Emmy nominees qualify; Black Mirror, Dying for Sex and The Penguin made it, while Adolescence and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story did not. Just one of five shows in best animated series, Arcane, got the ReFrame Stamp.
From a studio, company or platform perspective, three — Amazon MGM Studios, Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix — earned the ReFrame Stamp for more than 50 percent of their releases. AMC, NBCUniversal/Peacock, Lionsgate and IFC were among those that fell short this season.
The full list of series to receive the ReFrame Stamp in 2024-25 is below:
9-1-1 / ABC: Season
The Acolyte / Disney+: Season 1
Agatha All Along / Disney+: Season 1
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder / Netflix: Season 1
A Man on the Inside / Netflix: Season 1
Apple Cider Vinegar / Netflix: Season 1
†Arcane / Netflix: Season 2
A Thousand Blows / Hulu: Season 1
Bad Sisters / Apple TV+: Season 2
†The Bear / Hulu: Season 4
†Black Mirror / Netflix: Season 7
The Bondsman / Prime Video: Season 1
†The Boys / Prime Video: Season 4
Cross / Prime Video: Season 1
†The Diplomat / Netflix: Season 2
Dune: Prophecy / HBO Max: Season 1
Emily in Paris / Netflix: Season 4
†The Four Seasons / Netflix: Season 1
Good American Family / Hulu: Season 1
Grey’s Anatomy / ABC: Season 21
Grotesquerie / Hulu/FX Network: Season 1
†Hacks / HBO Max: Season 4
†The Handmaid’s Tale / Hulu: Season 6
House of the Dragon / HBO Max: Season 2
Kaos / Netflix: Season 1
The Lincoln Lawyer / Netflix: Season 3
Lioness / Paramount+: Season 2
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power / Prime Video: Season 2
The Madness / Netflix: Season 1
†Matlock / CBS: Season 1
Missing You / Netflix: Season 1
My Lady Jane / Prime Video: Season 1
The Night Agent / Netflix: Season 2
†Nobody Wants This / Netflix: Season 1
No Good Deed / Netflix: Season 1
†Only Murders in the Building / Hulu/ABC: Season 4
†The Penguin / HBO Max: Season 1
The Perfect Couple / Netflix: Season 1
†The Pitt / HBO Max: Season 1
Ransom Canyon / Netflix: Season 1
†The Residence / Netflix: Season 1
Secret Level / Prime Video: Season 1
Tell Me Lies / Hulu: Season 2
Toxic Town / Netflix: Season 1
Yellowjackets / Showtime: Season 3
† Denotes series nominated for 2025 Emmy Award
