Where Have All the Women Writers Gone? Long Time Passing.
Posted by Jim on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 in Author • Neely Swanson - Former SVP of Development for David E. Kelley, current adjunct professor at USC • Media Research • TV Blogs • (7) Comments • Permalink •
As discussed earlier in the article entitled “Women Can’t Create and White Men Can’t Jump” posted on February 4, 2010 at www.blssresearch.com, this has been a dreadful year for women’s participation in the pilot production season. The final announcement of pilot pickups in Variety on Monday, February 22, 2010 added one interesting and significant detail in reporting the CW’s choices. The CW picked up 6 pilots for production and of those 6, 3 were written by women (in partnership or alone) – a whopping 50%! But even with the new network pick-ups, and despite the CW additions, the participation percentages have not significantly changed. I don’t know how many women submitted scripts, treatments or pitches for consideration; nor do I know how many men submitted the like. I’m actually not sure that there is useful information to be gleaned from this approach because so many things go into the decision as to which scripts will be approved and then which scripts will be picked up for pilot production. Bad and good is so subjective, and it is one of the reasons that this information may not be entirely useful. We have, however, already discovered that there are more women than men in positions to determine which scripts get sent up the food chain. What are some other influencing factors?
Let’s look at the lottery bonanza known as “the Overall Deal.” Contrary to reports of its demise, it is still alive and kicking; it’s just diminished in size, scope and number from years past – particularly prior to the Writers’ Strike of 2007-08 at which point the studios were able to Force Majeure those deals that were either too expensive or deemed not productive enough. Still, according to the Baseline Research Entertainment Deals Report for the first quarter of 2010, there are a total of 141 Overall Deals in play in television from ABC, CBS, Fox, HBO, Lionsgate Television, NBC, Sony, and Warner Brothers. Of those 141 deals, 29 or 21% went to women, writing with a partner (male or female) or alone. From this point forward, all references to women writers will include those who write with a partner, male or female. The percentage of Overall Deals given to women mirrors the percentage of women represented in this year’s pilot production (22%). Studios will, perhaps, argue that Overalls play a less significant part than they have in the past; however out of the 85 network pilots I have now tracked, 34 came from writers who had Overall Deals, and of those 34 only 4 or 12% were written by women.
Whereas the implied purpose of an Overall is to develop new material with promising writers, it is also used to keep desirable writers on hit shows without having to worry about losing them when their show commitment ends. Most of the Overall Deals go to writers who have created shows in the past, in hopes that lightning will strike twice, as it sometimes does. Again, of the 141 deals mentioned, 73 went to writers who had previously created series; and of those 73, 13 or 18% were women. I judged (and keep in mind, “hit show” is subjective) 33 of the remaining Overalls were given to writers to keep them working on shows that were important to the network or studio, of which women accounted for 8 or 24%. Some of the remaining deals by writers who were neither on hit shows nor had previously created shows were held by writers who created pilots for this season (5, of which 1 was a woman). Of the remaining writers, it was fairly clear that Showrunners, a valuable commodity, were being rewarded, as were comedy writers even though they had neither created shows of their own nor were on hit shows; that still left a few head-scratchers, but then I wasn’t privy to those negotiations.[1]
Unspoken in all of this is the investment that the studios and networks make in the writers who receive these deals. I don’t think one can deny the financial incentive, in terms of monies already guaranteed, to reward these writers with a greater chance for a pilot pickup; there is a certain amount of rationalization to the self justification of choosing these writers’ projects over others. If this is the case, it would at least partially account for the lower numbers of women having their projects produced. When new shows are not forthcoming from these deals, the studios have the alternative of burning off some of the money by placing these writers on other shows.
In order to bring attention to one’s skills it is imperative to be staffed on a series. How are women doing in terms of staffing? My techniques were very unscientific in that I decided to look at the history of several shows for varying reasons, which I will give as I discuss each show. First up, scripted shows in the Nielsen top 20 for the week of Feb.8 – 14, 2010.
| 6. | NCIS: | 19 Writers | 0 Women |
| 7. | NCIS Los Angeles | 7 Writers | 1 Woman |
| 8. | Two and a Half Men |
7 Writers | 1 Woman |
| 9. | The Big Bang Theory | 8 Writers | 1 Woman |
| 10. | The Mentalist | 9 Writers | 2 Women |
| 12. | The Good Wife | 6 Writers | 4 Women |
| 13. | Criminal Minds | 7 Writers | 1 Woman |
| 15. | House | 12 Writers | 4 Women |
| 16. | CSI Miami | 13 Writers | 4 Women |
| 17. | CSI NY | 9 Writers | 3 Women |
| 18. | Grey’s Anatomy | 11 Writers | 7 Women |
| 20. | Lost |
9 Writers | 2 Women |
You do the math. For me, this analysis only opened up more questions so I started looking at previous seasons on some of these shows. “NCIS” has never employed more than 1 woman on staff since its 2003/2004 season premiere, and Chuck Lorre has kept only 1 woman on staff throughout the history of both “Two and a Half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory.” Looking further back at some of his previous shows, however, the staff of “Dharma and Greg” was 40% women and at least 30% of his staffs on “Cybill” and “Grace Under Fire” were women.
Perhaps, I thought, cable would be a more receptive arena for women’s voices. Was I wrong! I decided to investigate 3 shows on USA, the number one rated cable network – “Monk,” “Psych,” and “Burn Notice.” None, emphasis on none of these shows has ever employed a woman on the writing staff! These aren’t blood and guts, male testosterone-laden shows; these are shows dependent on female viewers on a network that was run by a woman! None! Draw your own conclusions.
Are we still at that place where the assumption is that women can only write women and men can only write men? I hope not. WGA – what percentage of your active membership writing for television is women? I do not advocate a quota system, just an acknowledgement that the talent that is out there should be reflected in staffing. This holds true for minorities as well as for women, but neither seems to be making headway in the perception of showrunners who still hire their friends instead of the best available writers and studio executives who allow such situations to continue. And even though this article focused exclusively on women, one question keeps coming to the surface - Why is there no Larry Wilmore show on television and/or why isn’t he running one of the comedies out there? Clearly the man is a superior talent. Where is the color-blind staffing? How do I tell the women and the students of color that I teach that there is a world out there for them? Please let me in on what is happening. I can only hope that John Wells, president of the WGA, will get the organization moving in the direction he personally has been going for years in the staffing and support of women and minorities.
Dedicated to the late Selma Diamond. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_Diamond
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[1] Overall Deals at each studio awarded to women as a percentage of the total number awarded: ABC: 16%; CBS: 25%; Fox: 18%; HBO: 0%; Lionsgate: 0%; NBC-U: 24%; Sony: 23%; Warners: 33%. Pilots produced by the above studios which had women writers, expressed as a percentage of the total: ABC: 21%; CBS: 0%; CBS/Warner (for the CW): 60%; NBC-U: 0%; Sony: 11%; Warners: 33%.
Neely Swanson Formerly Senior Vice President of Development for David E. Kelley Productions, Neely is presently an adjunct professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in the writing division teaching “The Entertainment Industry Seminar.” Neely also writes a blog about writers and wonderful scripts they’ve written that have never made it to the big or little screen. Check out her blog at www.nomeanerplace.com.
