Growing Female Representation Behind the Camera Has Helped Reach Wider TV Audiences | Charts
In the past six years, there has been increasing female representation behind the camera in the TV industry. The number of new series with a majority female behind-the-camera (BTC) representation in 2023 was 48% higher than in 2017. During this same period, as more content was being made with a majority-female BTC representation, audience demand for these shows also grew.
The share of demand for newly released shows with a female-majority talent behind the camera more than doubled, from 8% to 17%. Among these productions the demand has outpaced the supply, suggesting each new series, on average, is of higher quality and capturing a high share of audience attention.
Drilling down even further, we can see that this growth has not happened evenly across roles. Shows with a majority of female writers had the largest demand share across different BTC roles in 2017 (20%) and this grew to a 26% share of demand for new series released in 2023. Shows with female directors saw the greatest growth in demand share, from 12% in 2017 to 21% in 2023.
The growth in demand for shows with majority-female BTC representation has been larger in certain content genres. Horror has been the standout in terms of growing demand for new productions with majority-female BTC talent. The share of demand for new horror series with majority-female BTC talent was over five times larger than it was in 2017. More broadly, the greatest demand growth among majority-female BTC series shows a move away from traditionally female genres and a shift towards more traditionally male-skewing genres like action, adventure, sci-fi and war.
If we focus on the 100 most in-demand majority-female BTC new premieres in 2017 compared to 2023 two key takeaways emerge. The average demand for these shows has boomed since 2017. The average global demand for these shows 30 days post-premiere was 9.5 times the demand of the average show in 2023, up from 2.3x in 2017. In 2017, “The Handmaid’s Tale” was the only one of these shows to have over 20x the average series demand in its first 30 days. In 2023, five new shows with majority-female BTC talent had over 20 times the average series demand.
As majority-female BTC productions have reached a higher level of demand, the audiences of these series have shifted from majority-female towards a more even male/female split, signifying that women are producing engaging content that reaches beyond female audiences. This, in combination with the growth in diverse genres, showcases how the increase in inclusivity behind the camera has helped reach a wider audience base across genres.
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