ReFrame Analysis of IMDbPro Data Finds Gender

the initiative launched in 2017 by Sundance Institute and WIF (formerly known as Women In Film Los Angeles) to advance gender equity in the screen industries, and IMDbPro, the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals, today announced that 45 of the 100 most popular series of 2024-25 meet ReFrame Stamp criteria for gender-balanced production including Emmy-nominated series Dying for Sex, Hacks, The Bear and The Pitt (full list below). The 2024-25 ReFrame Report on Gender and Hiring in TV, which examines hiring across key roles in these series based on IMDbPro data, saw a rebound of 6.5% this year from last year’s tally, which was the lowest for gender-balanced series since 2020.

When content is produced by a gender balanced team, viewers tune in. ReFrame reviewed viewership data for the IMDbPro Top 100 Series and found that on average, ReFrame Stamped series have 1.33M more viewers than their non-Stamped counterparts. This preference for inclusive content held strong in the coveted target demographic of viewers 18-49.

ReFrame looked at a larger pool of the Top 200 series to examine hiring of writers and directors and the total episode count. Last year, the total number of episodes dropped from 1,977 to 1,773 (-204) and saw nearly equivalent losses for women, nonbinary and trans writers (-187) and directors (-199). This year, the total number of episodes rebounded to 1,979 (+206), but the hiring of underrepresented writers and directors did not recover proportionately. Only 134 of the restored episodes were attributed to writers and 117 to directors of underrepresented genders, an overall loss across those episodes of 28.3% and 41.2% respectively.

Additional findings of the ReFrame Report include:

• Women, nonbinary and trans directors shot 35.8% percent of episodes this year, a slight increase from last year’s 33.4% (+2.8%). While they still lag disproportionately in their share of pilots and first episodes, some ground was gained this year: those directors helmed 35.2% of pilots or first episodes, nearing their share of regular episodes with a gap of only 1%. That said, their overall share is still far from parity.

• Showrunners are still the single role with the highest correlation for overall gender-balanced hiring; 92.9% of series with women in that position qualified for the ReFrame Stamp.

• A significant number of series (82%) had at least one woman in a non-writing executive producer role, but women of color in the role fell to 18% (down 7.5%).

• There were increases in several key crew roles including unit production managers who reached 33%, first assistant directors who reached 46% and directors of photography which reached 26%, historic highs for women, nonbinary and trans persons in these roles.

• This year there were notable decreases for two key crew roles already lacking in inclusion; representation for women, nonbinary and trans persons fell 7.5% to 12% for line producers and 4% to 14% for composers.

• Only Editors and Costume Designers, positions where women, nonbinary or trans people have held more than 50% of positions year over year, have ever exceeded 10% of those persons also being people of color. No other key crew position has exceeded 5.5% of role attributed to women, nonbinary and/or trans people of color.

• There was an increase in lead characters portrayed by trans and nonbinary performers from one last year to three this year; however, gender diversity in co-leads fell from 14 to seven.

• Three series hired one nonbinary and one trans director of photography to lens their episodes.

• This year 85% of the Top 100 series were released by streamers, who have more than quadrupled their share of top series over the last eight years, rising from 19% to 85% (+66%). Network series were down to 5% from 48% (-43%) and cable projects down to 10% from 33% (-23%).

• For the third consecutive year, the majority of Emmy nominees for Outstanding Comedy Series received the Stamp: Five of the eight (Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Hacks, Nobody Wants This and Only Murders in the Building) met gender-balanced production criteria. Two of the eight nominated series in the Outstanding Drama category were Stamped (The Diplomat and The Pitt), as were three of the five Limited or Anthology Series (Black Mirror, Dying for Sex and The Penguin) and one of five Animated Series (Arcane).

• The ReFrame Report includes a report card showing the percentage of Top 100 series that met ReFrame Stamp criteria from each company. This year, two streaming companies, Amazon MGM Studios and Netflix, as well as projects released by Warner Bros. Discovery, earned the ReFrame Stamp for more than 50% of their releases. None of the three series released by NBCUniversal on Peacock obtained the Stamp, and there were no Top 100 series from ‘Other’ distributors, a category that has historically included companies like AMC, Lionsgate and IFC.

  The ReFrame Stamp is an acknowledgement of gender-balanced hiring, so every production—regardless of subject matter or the gender of its director or lead talent—can achieve gender parity. The Stamp is awarded to series that hire ‘qualifying candidates,’ or women or individuals of other underrepresented gender identities/expressions (including those who are transgender, nonbinary, or gender non-conforming) in at least 50% of key roles roles, including showrunner, directors, writers, executive producers, lead, co-leads, director of photographer, production designer, costume designer, editor, composer, music supervisor, VFX supervisor, line producer, unit production manager, first assistant director, stunt coordinator and intimacy coordinator. Additional points are awarded to productions that hire qualifying candidates of color in these key positions, and to those with overall gender parity in their crews. View the full ReFrame Stamp criteria here.

   

  To award the Stamp, ReFrame examined IMDbPro data on the 100 most popular scripted television and streaming series with a full season of episodes released during the Emmys eligibility period of June 1, 2024 – May 31, 2025. In 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2024-25, percentages are based on analysis of the Top 100 series; from 2020-21 to 2023-24, they are based on the Top 200 series. Each show was considered for the list based on its top-performing four weeks during the eligibility period on the IMDbPro proprietary ranking of titles, factoring in the removal of sports, news, non-fiction and reality programs. IMDbPro rankings are based on the actual page views of the more than 250 million monthly visitors to IMDb worldwide.