TV Directors Diversity Report is Depressing and Outrageous

DGA TV Directors 2014 reveals little changes for women and minorities in the TV industry.

Women may make up over half of the United States population, but in Hollywood only 14% of women directed a primetime network and cable TV show.

According to the most recent DGA study, job opportunities for non-white-male directors are not getting better.  “There has been no significant improvement in diversity hiring practices in episodic television during the past four years,” the guild said in its report.

“Unfortunately, it can be shockingly difficult to convince the people who control hiring to make even small improvements to their hiring practices,” said DGA President Paris Barclay. “But the end result is something worth fighting for. This should matter to all of us, as a culture, as an industry and as directors.”

According to Deadline, the report analyzed over 3,500 episodes in the past year and found that men are directing more TV shows than women.

In its survey, the DGA analyzed 3,500-plus episodes produced for the 2013-14 network television season and the 2013 cable television season from more than 220 scripted series. The report found that six-times more men than women are directing TV shows. According to the report, Caucasian males helmed 69% of all episodes, minority males directed 17%, Caucasian females 12% and minority females directed 2% of all episodes. [Deadline]

However, there was a 3% increase in diversity for minority directors in comparison to last year and that can be attributed to Tyler Perry. According to the report, non-white-males directed 3% more episodes this year than in the previous year. But, the DGA said, “closer analysis reveals that this increase can be entirely attributed to the high number of episodes directed by a single director, Tyler Perry, who directed all episodes of three television series that he also produced, accounting for the entire 3% gain.” Therefore, because Tyler Perry directs all of his TV shows and movies, he is the only reason for an increase in diversity.

Five TV shows did feature all women or minority directors which include: BET’s The Game, Let’s Stay Together and The Real Husbands Of Hollywood and VH1’s Hit The Floor and Single Ladies. But, there were 23 others shows that did not hire a single female or minority director last season including, Hot In Cleveland (TV Land),Witches Of East End (Lifetime) and Nikita (the CW).

Here is the list of 10 shows that did not hire a single woman or minority all season to direct an episode:

1. Back In The Game
2. Betas
3. Boardwalk Empire
4. Crossbones
5. Defiance
6. Eastbound & Down
7. The Exes
8. Fargo
9. Granite Flats
10. Hannibal

Here is the list of 10 shows that hired women or minority directors for at least 40% of their episodes:

1. The Game
2. Hit the Floor
3. Let’s Stay Together
4. The Real Husbands of Hollywood
5. Single Ladies
6. Power
7. Warehouse 13
8. From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
9. Drop Dead Diva
10. Mike & Molly

Despite several new TV shows and movies featuring females as lead characters, there are still diversity issues plaguing Hollywood. A recent SAG-AFTRA study found that there is a bias against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender actors. Now, this most recent study by the Directors Guild of America, demonstrates that women and minorities are still not getting a fair shot at directing in Hollywood.

Related: 

• STUDY: 2014 Hollywood Diversity Report Results are Shocking but Not Surprising
• Women and Minority Writers See Gains in TV but Lag Behind in Film – WGA Diversity Report
• The Diversity Gap in the Academy Awards is Sad and Frightening [Infographic]

What do you think?Discuss this story with fellow Project Casting fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @projectcasting.