Women and people of color have made big gains in writers rooms in recent years, but white male creators still dominate when it comes to TV’s highest-budgeted scripted programs, according to the latest edition of UCLA’s annual Hollywood Diversity Report.
The report found that 21% of scripted streaming series created by white men had per-episode budgets of $7 million an episode or more. That compared to 11.1% of series created by people of color, and only 2.9% of series created by white women (the latter statistic boils down to one show: Disney+’s “WandaVision”).
Two-thirds, or 66.6%, of scripted streaming shows created by people of color had budgets below $3 million or less. Among white women, 42.9% of streaming series creators had budgets between $3 million and $5 million.
“The next few years may be a true test of whether Hollywood is truly committed to the changes they promised during the nation’s reckoning on race following the murder of George Floyd,” said Ana-Christina Ramón, director of the Entertainment and Media Research Initiative at UCLA.
The 70-page report tracks gender and racial data for key production jobs on 107 broadcast, 109 cable and 191 digital scripted shows from the 2020–21 season. Among the findings:
Women account for:
- 31.8% of show creators in broadcast
- 31.2% in cable
- 36.1% in digital.
People of color account for:
- 13.1% of those roles in broadcast
- 26.6% in cable
- 25.6% in digital
In writers rooms, the gains have been notable. As of the 2020-21 season:
- 45% of TV series writers were women
- More than 30% were people of color
- 17.8% of writers for broadcast shows were women of color
