Male TV Show Creators vs. Female TV Show Creators: Who Carries the Weight and Why?

So, I took a random survey of 25 TV shows currently on TV to see how many of the series creators were male versus female. My disappointing assumption that the male creators would greatly outweigh the females creators proved to be very true. Of the 38 names compiled (with more than one creator for some shows  – my math isn’t THAT bad), 31 of the creators were males, while only 7 were female. That’s pretty…not okay!

Dean - I still love you, don't worry. Kripke, too.

QUICK STATS:
25 Current TV Shows Listed
38 Creators (According to IMDB.com)
31 Male Creators
7 Female Creators

Now, before any science majors or statistics people come after me – my total disclaimer is: I did not use an exact science to pick the shows I used, I just made sure they were current, and tried to use a variety of different networks. I’ve never been anything close to a scientist (I never even got to make one of those volcanos that explode with baking soda!), and if you went about this in a different way, including many more cable shows (and reality TV shows, which I excluded from this – because well, they suck) the numbers might be more balanced.

I guess the point is that the majority of major network shows are indeed created by males. Should I be …surprised? I suppose not, although it still annoys me. This may not be the era of Mad Men, but as far as I know a woman still makes less than a man! Like, really? It’s so ridiculous it seems it shouldn’t be true.

Another disclaimer: I did not list the writers, producers, or other people that make up a show. I want to emphasize that this was purely a little study of TV show creators.

I just wonder why all the names at the ends of shows are male. It occurs to me that the TV entertainment industry might be much harder for women than I could ever guess (with my vast experience being a TV show creator, unbelieveable huh!).

The women who do get their shows made are all large successes, and generally well-known names: Tina Fey, Diablo Cody, Shonda Rhimes etc. It would be my totally unscientific guess that people are more likely to take a chance on an unknown male name than a female one. You know, cause the world is all biased and sucky like that. Um, just saying.  Maybe we’d have to live through less suckdom in pilot season (and spared things like  The CW’s ‘Valentine’) if women had a fair chance. And also if the women had jet packs! …Just ’cause.

Tina Fey

The List of TV Shows:

Desperate Housewives
Series Creator: Marc Cherry

Lost
Series Creators: J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Jeffrey Lieber

Dollhouse
Series Creator: Joss Whedon

Samantha Who?
Series Creators: Cecelia Ahern, Donald Todd

The Office
Series Creators: Greg Daniels, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant

30 Rock
Series Creator: Tina Fey

My Name is Earl
Series Creator: Gregory Thomas Garcia

Supernatural
Series Creator: Eric Kripke

Gossip Girl
Series Creators: Stephanie Savage, Josh Schwartz

90210
Series Creator: Rob Thomas, Jeff Judah, Gabe Sachs

Heroes
Series Creator: Tim Kring

How I Met Your Mother
Series Creators: Carter Bays, Craig Thomas

Two and a Half Men
Series Creators: Lee Aronsohn, Chuck Lorre

Chuck
Series Creator: Chris Fedak, Josh Schwartz

Medium
Series Creator: Glenn Gordon Caron

Bones
Series Creator: Hart Hanson

United States of Tara
Series Creator: Diablo Cody

Weeds
Series Creator: Jenji Kohan

Big Love
Series Creators: Mark V. Olsen, Will Scheffer

The Tudors
Series Creator: Michael Hirst

The Closer
Series Creator: James Duff

Saving Grace
Series Creator: Nancy Miller

Trust Me
Series Creators: Hunt Baldwin, John Coveny

Scrubs
Series Creator: Bill Lawrence

Grey’s Anatomy
Series Creator: Shonda Rhimes