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Missing From Prime Time: Female Directors

Oct 3, 2013  •  Post A Comment

Female directors are still largely missing from television’s prime-time roster, reports Dave McNary at Variety, citing a report from the Directors Guild of America. The group examined both cable and broadcast programming.

Caucasian males are the dominant group, with 72% of all prime-time episodes directed by that demographic in the 2012-13 season. That’s slightly down from the 2011-12 season, when 73% of all episodes were helmed by Caucasian males.

The report, which was released Wednesday, found that the percentage of episodes directed by Caucasian females increased to 12% from 11%. Minority females decreased their presence to 2% from 4%. Minority males represented 13% of all episodes, down from 14%.

The study pointed out 13 shows that included no female directors last season, including "Falling Skies" on TNT and "Supernatural" on The CW.

“But we can’t ignore the shows on our ‘Worst Of’ lists — how is it possible, in this day and age, that more than a dozen series didn’t hire even a single woman or minority director all season?” said Betty Thomas, co-chair of the DGA’s Diversity Task Force.

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