DGA Sees Improved Diversity Among Episodic TV Hires, Despite Production Contraction — Report

Despite the recent production contraction, women and people of color are still getting more opportunities to direct episodic television. However, diversifying the entire directorial team on projects remains a struggle, according to a new report from the Directors Guild of America.

Of the 1,430 episodes of television analyzed from the 2023-24 season, the DGA says that 37% were directed by women. That’s up 16% over the past decade, but it’s also down 3% from 2021, when it reached an all-time high.

People of color directed 39% of those episodes, which marks an 18% increase over the past 10 years and is steady with the past two.

Women of color in particular directed 13%, compared to just 3% during the 2014-15 season. Men of color saw a rise from 15% of episodes a decade ago to 26% last season. Representation for white women was up from 13% in 2014-15 to 20% in 2023-24.

As mentioned, this upward trend has continued, despite a drastic drop in episodic television production over the last year, as the industry has contracted in the wake of two strikes. Hiring across six of seven demographic categories remained proportionate to prior years, even though the number of episodes made was cut in half year-over-year (from 3,926 in 2022).

The DGA’s report, published Friday, also includes data for hiring among LGBTQ+ and disabled communities for the first time. The data shows that 8.6% of TV episodes in 2023 were directed by members of the LGBTQ+ community and 0.6% by a member of the disabled community. 

The biggest issue that remains is diversifying the entire directorial team, including First Assistant Directors (First ADs), Second Assistant Directors (Second ADs), and Unit Production Managers.

Since the DGA began tracking this data in 2020, the union says the numbers have remained consistent. This year, women made up about 41% of directorial teams for episodic TV, while only 21% were from communities of color.

“The good news is that the industry has made measurable gains in the employment of women directors and directors of color in episodic television over the past ten seasons,” DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter said in a statement Friday. “Although these gains have held steady through the beginning of 2024, we must remain vigilant in this time when employers have pulled back on production. Our Diversity and Inclusion data is critical for putting pressure on the industry to do a better job in advancing opportunities for directors from historically marginalized communities.”