Record percentage of women and people of color directed episodic TV shows in 2020-21 Covid-Hit season, DGA reports

Despite a dramatic 36% drop in the number of TV episodes written on the worst days of the Covend pandemic, the percentage of women and people of color who drive them hit a record high in the 2020-21 season.

According to the latest DGA Inclusion Report, 38% of the episodes of the 2020-21 season were directed by women, an increase of 8.6% compared to 35% of the previous season and double compared to 2014, directed by 16% . People of Color led 34% of the episodes, up 17.2% from 29% the previous season and double 16% since 2014.

However, the Guild noted that “while the proportion of episodes directed by women and black directors continued to grow, the profits were not evenly distributed. Latin and Asian filmmakers recorded minimal earnings and continued to be underrepresented at 9% and 7% respectively.

Despite this percentage increase in women and people of color, the actual number of episodes they filmed dropped dramatically during the shortened season by the 2020-21 pandemic, as they had far fewer episodes than the year before. According to the report, there were 2,691 episodes covered by DGA in the 2020-21 season, down 1,495 episodes from the previous season’s 4,186 episodes. This resulted in 440 fewer episodes for women and nearly 300 fewer episodes for people of color.

“When the pandemic hit, the big question we have in mind was whether the progress on inclusive hiring would change as the manufacturing environment changed dramatically with the implementation of essential security protocols for Covid,” said the president. of the DGA Leslie Linka Glatter. “Despite all the production challenges, the good news is that inclusive hiring has continued to grow over the past year, both in terms of total hires and first-time directors. It is said: although progress is continuous, the goal of a level playing field for all has not yet been achieved. Furthermore, the statistics clearly show this, especially for our Latin and Asian members. “

The report showed that 18% of the 2020-21 season’s episodes were directed by African Americans, up from 15% in the previous season. However, this year’s inclusion report does not contain the surprising results of director Tyler Perry, whose name is not mentioned in the report. The footnote reads: “In developing this year’s report setup, the DGA changed the methodology and data collection to improve the overall accuracy of the report. A decision was made to remove an excluded item from this year’s report. The African American director loosely surpasses the employment of African American directors by up to 150 episodes each year. “All the data in the report, which compares 2020-21 with previous years, is adequate to make the statistics comparable.”

According to the report, 9% of the episodes of the 2020-21 season were directed by Latinos, 7% more than the previous year; 7% of the episodes were directed by Asian Americans, which was similar to the previous season, while less than 1% of the episodes were directed by Native Americans, which was also similar to the previous season.

By gender, Caucasian men filmed 39% of episodes, and Caucasian women 23%; 11% of the episodes were directed by African American men and 7% by African American women; Latin men led 5% and Latins 4%; Asian American men 5% and Asian American men 2%; Native American men led 0.3%, while Native American women 0.1%.

Looking at the data differently, counting the number of individual directors, regardless of whether they worked on a single episode or multiple episodes per season, the DGA found that 896 individual directors were hired to work in 170 DGA during the season. 2020-21. . – Made a version of a TV series with a US-based script. 39% of these directors were women; 61% were men; 64% were Caucasian; 15% were African American, 8% Asian American, 9% Latin American, 0.02% Native American, and 4% unknown / refused to name their race or ethnicity. In contrast, in the previous 2019-20 season, when 1,268 individual directors were hired, 35% were female and 11% were African American.

According to the DGA, major studios oversaw the production of nearly three-quarters of the episodes described in its latest report. As these rankings show, of the companies overseeing the production of at least 50 episodes covered by DGA, Lionsgate had the highest percentage of black directors (56%), while Viacom Media Networks had the lowest percentage of HBO (21). %). However, HBO had the highest percentage of female directors (46%), while Viacom Media Networks still had the lowest (26%).

The footnote states that the report “monitors the occupation (production) of television studios rather than distribution platforms. Many studios also operate third party series and some studios are not affiliated with the distribution platform. “

For the first time, DGA has also published data on the participation status of directing teams working with directors on episodic screenplay shows. “For the purposes of the analysis,” the report reads, “a job has been defined as: hiring a team for the job.
Category Production unit manager, first deputy director, second deputy director, second 2AD, additional 2AD and location manager covered by the DGA. The DGA notes that these data are based on full-time employees and not on individuals hired for a single day or several days in a single episode.

The report shows that for the 2020-21 season, there were 1,180 jobs on the management team, comprised of 1,011 people, with some people working more than one show during the season.

By gender and ethnicity, 465 executive positions were reserved for women, representing 39% of the total, and 280 executive positions were for black executives, representing 24% of the total. African Americans accounted for 13% of the jobs, Latinos 6%, Asian Americans 4% and Native Americans 0.6%.

The division of labor for a management team separated by gender and ethnicity is as follows:
• UPM: 201 jobs – 33% women; 11% of black people.
• 1st vacancy: 338 jobs – 31% women; 22% of black people.
• 2nd AD: 641 jobs – 46% women; 29% of people of color.

“We are proud to announce the first feature film in our history by a team of directors in episodic television,” said Glatter. “By focusing on full-time hiring, we have been able to provide a meaningful new foundation for the current firm practice of hiring a firm. Unfortunately, this report reveals that the practice of hiring a studio for a directing team raises areas of concern, particularly with the hiring of CEOs and UPMs of color, who make up less than a quarter of all team members hired last year. season.

The union also noted that in 2021 it has initiated the process of identifying and tracking data for LGBTQ + members and members with disabilities and will seek to aggregate statistics on the participation of these members in future relationships.

The report, as in previous reports, also discussed hiring data for primary episode directors. Over the years, the Guild has complained that too many episodic directing concerts have been staged since this “first break” to show experts that they often don’t pursue directing careers and are less inclusive.

“You recognize that engagement is truly impossible until the pipeline is changed,” said the DGA, as did directors who have worked in other genres, such as feature films and commercials, which the Guild calls “career directors.”

During the pandemic-stricken 2020-21 season, employers hired 113 directors who had never directed episodic television before. Overall, the percentage of roles transferred to contract directors rose to 39% (from 29% in the previous season), while the share of women was 46%, up from 48% in the previous season.

Of the first discontinued jobs, 72 (64%) were awarded to directors related to the show, while 41 (36%) were awarded to career directors. According to the union, “match officials and affiliated groups vary in diversity: the match officials group has a higher percentage of people of color and women than affiliates. Women represent 55% of hired career directors, compared to 40% of affiliate directors. 54% of black directors are career directors, while 38% are associated with the program. These participation differences are significant because, as DGA data has been consistent since 2009, two-thirds of match officials continue to direct in other series and only 25% of affiliate directors continue to direct series they did not have. . “

In conclusion, the DGA stressed that “it has been forcing studios, networks and manufacturers to be more inclusive in hiring for nearly four decades. Union efforts include: achieving collective bargaining, which requires television studios to produce a variety of programs by television directors; Constant meetings with individual studies, networks and series about their hiring records; And it has published reports outlining employers’ hiring patterns. In addition, the guild itself has launched educational and mentoring programs for various television directors to promote the professional development of its members.