ReFrame, an initiative of the Sundance Institute and Women in Film Los Angeles, and IMDbPro has announced that 47% of the 200 most popular scripted series of the 2021-2022 season earned the ReFrame Stamp for gender-balanced hiring. This is a 7% decrease from the previous season but more than double the number of shows that qualified when ReFrame Stamp first launched in 2018. ReFrame and IMDbPro have now renewed their collaboration on the Stamp initiative through 2025.
The ReFrame TV Stamp is awarded to scripted television and episodic productions that hire women or individuals of other underrepresented gender identities/expressions in at least four out of eight key roles including writer, director, lead actor, and producer. Additional points are awarded to productions that hire women of color in these positions, and to those with overall gender parity in their crews.
The 200 shows were chosen based on their top-performing four weeks during the eligibility period (June 1, 2021 – May 31, 2022) on the IMDbPro proprietary ranking of titles.
For the first time, ReFrame has also issued a Company Report Card, indicating where studios, streamers, and networks have met the ReFrame Stamp standard. Apple had the highest percentage of its content earn the Stamp – 75% of its eligible series met gender-balanced hiring criteria – and the majority of the major studios saw at least 40% of their content earn the Stamp.
Key findings of the 2021-2022 report include:
- The majority of showrunners are men, and the majority of women showrunners are white. Of the 200 shows analyzed, 59 had a woman showrunner (29.5%). Of those shows, only 7 had a woman of color showrunner (3.5%).
- Men directed the majority of episodes; many women directed multiple episodes. Of the 2008 episodes analyzed, 723 (36%) were directed by 293 women. 194 episodes (9.7%) were directed by 88 women of color.
- We are nearing gender parity for episodes written by women, but not for women of color writers. Of the 2008 episodes analyzed, 973 were written by women (48.5%). 325 episodes (16.2%) were written by women of color.
- More women cinematographers are getting hired, but very few women of color. 44 of the 200 shows (22%) hired a woman cinematographer for at least one episode, which indicates an increase of over 100% from prior year. However, only 7 shows hired a cinematographer who was a woman of color (3.5%).
- 62.5% of shows in the Emmy Awards Outstanding Comedy Series category received the Stamp (Abbott Elementary, Hacks, Only Murders in the Building, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, What We Do In The Shadows), as did 60% of shows in the Outstanding Limited Series category (Inventing Anna, Pam and Tommy, The Dropout) and 37.5% of shows nominated in the Emmys category of Outstanding Drama Series (Euphoria, Severance, Yellowjackets).
“The Stamp is a mechanism to show us where the work of building a more inclusive industry is being done, and to celebrate the executives, producers, showrunners, creatives and department heads who are making that happen by building gender-balanced teams,” Andria Wilson Mirza, ReFrame’s Director said. “It also serves as a method for accountability. With this report, we’re sharing the studios’ current standing, and we invite them to set a goal of increasing the Stamps they earn year-over-year.”
To address areas that have continued gender disparity, ReFrame is tweaking current criteria for next season. Effective June 1, 2022, there will be a higher value assigned to a series’ showrunner, as well as a more expansive analysis of key roles in production, adding 1st Assistant Directors, Unit Production Managers, Line Producers, Intimacy Coordinators, and more to the reviewed roles. Furthermore, the total points needed to secure the Stamp will be increasing.
Since the Stamp was launched four years ago, over 800 productions have earned it.
Listed in alphabetical order, below are the Stamped shows for the 2021-2022 season
“9-1-1”/ FOX: Season 5
“Grey’s Anatomy” / ABC: Season 18
“American Rust” / Showtime: Season 1
“Hacks” / HBO Max: Season 2
“Anatomy of a Scandal” / Netflix: Season 1
“Hawkeye” / Disney+: Season 1
“And Just Like That…” / HBO Max: Season 1
“How I Met Your Father” / Hulu: Season 1
“Angelyne” / Peacock: Season 1
“Human Resources” / Netflix: Season 1
“Archive 81” / Netflix: Season 1
“I Know What You Did Last Summer” / Amazon: Season 1
“Atypical” / Netflix: Season 4
“Impeachment: American Crime Story” / FX: Season 3
“Bel-Air” / Peacock: Season 1
“In from the Cold” / Netflix: Season 1
“Big Sky” / ABC: Season 2
“Invasion” / Apple TV+: Season 1
“Brand New Cherry Flavor” / Netflix: Season 1
“Inventing Anna” / Netflix: Season 1
“Bridgerton” / Netflix: Season 2
“Julia” / HBO Max: Season 1
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” / NBC: Season 8
“Kevin Can F**k Himself” / AMC: Season 1
“Chicago Med” / NBC: Season 7
“Killing Eve” / AMC: Season 4
“Clickbait” / Netflix: Season 1
“La Brea” / NBC: Season 1
“Conversations with Friends” / Hulu: Season 1
“Leverage: Redemption” / Freevee: Season 1
“CSI: Vegas” / CBS: Season 1
“Life & Beth” / Hulu: Season 1
“Doom Patrol” / HBO Max: Season 3
“Locke & Key” / Netflix: Season 2
“Dr. Death” / Peacock: Season 1
“Maid” / Netflix: Season 1
“Euphoria” / HBO : Season 2
“Minx” / HBO Max: Season 1
“Fantasy Island” / Fox: Season 1
“Modern Love” / Amazon: Season 2
“Gaslit” / Starz: Season 1
“Never Have I Ever” / Netflix: Season 2
“Ghosts” / Paramount+: Season 1
“Only Murders in the Building” / Hulu: Season 1
“Gossip Girl” / HBO Max: Season 1
“Ordinary Joe” / NBC: Season 1
“Grace and Frankie” / Netflix: Season 7
“Pachinko” / Apple TV+: Season 1
“Pam & Tommy” / Hulu: Season 1
“The Rookie” / ABC: Season 4
“Physical” / Apple TV+: Season 1
“The Sex Lives of College Girls” / HBO Max: Season 1
“Pieces of Her” / Netflix: Season 1
“The Sinner” / USA Network: Season 4
“Reservation Dogs” / FX: Season 1
“The Thing About Pam” / NBC: Season 1
“Russian Doll” / Netflix: Season 2
“The Walking Dead” / AMC: Season 11
“Sanditon” / PBS: Season 2
“The Wheel of Time” / Amazon: Season 1
“See” / Apple TV+: Season 2
“The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window” / Netflix: Season 1
“Severance” / Apple TV+: Season 1
“Titans” / HBO Max: Season 3
“Sex Education” / Netflix: Season 3
“True Story” / Netflix: Season 1
“Sex/Life” / Netflix: Season 1
“Upload” / Amazon: Season 2
“Shining Girls” / Apple TV+: Season 1
“Virgin River” / Netflix: Season 3
“Snowpiercer” / TNT: Season 3
“WeCrashed” / Apple TV+: Season 1
“Star Trek: Discovery” / Paramount+: Season 4
“What We Do in the Shadows” / FX: Season 3
“Star Wars: The Bad Batch” / Disney+: Season 1
“Y: The Last Man” / FX: Season 1
“Station Eleven” / HBO Max: Season 1
“Yellowjackets” / Showtime: Season 1
“Stay Close” / Netflix: Season 1
“You” / Netflix: Season 3
“Sweet Magnolias” / Netflix: Season 2
“Sweet Tooth” / Netflix: Season 1
“The Chair” / Netflix: Season 1
“The Cleaning Lady” / Fox: Season 1
“The Dropout” / Hulu: Season 1
“The Endgame” / NBC: Season 1
“The Essex Serpent” / Apple TV+: Season 1
“The First Lady” / Showtime: Season 1
“The Flight Attendant” / HBO Max: Season 2
“The Gilded Age” / HBO Max: Season 1
“The Girl from Plainville” / Hulu: Season 1
“The Good Doctor” / ABC: Season 5
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” / Amazon: Season 4
“The Morning Show” / Apple TV+: Season 2
Additional Shows awarded the ReFrame Stamp in 2021-22:
“61st Street” / AMC: Season 1
“Abbott Elementary” / ABC: Season 1
“A Discovery of Witches” / AMC: Season 2
“Good Trouble” / Freeform: Season 4
“Grown-ish” / Freeform: Season 4
“Love Life” / HBO Max: Season 2
“Motherland” / Freeform: Season 3
“Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries” AMC: Season 2
“My Life is Murder” / AMC: Season 3
“Single Drunk Female” / Freeform: Season 1
“Station 19” / ABC: Season 4
“With Love” / Amazon: Season 1
