ReFrame Report Reveals Decline in Gender-Balanced Hiring Across Top TV Series
The television industry’s push toward gender parity appears to be losing momentum. A new annual report from ReFrame, created in collaboration with WIF, shows that gender-balanced hiring on television’s most popular series dipped during the 2025-2026 season. The report, which examines hiring practices across the top 100 series of the season, found that only 42 of those shows earned ReFrame’s Stamp, a designation awarded to productions that meet specific gender-balanced hiring criteria. That number represents a three percent decline compared to the previous television season, according to details of the report obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
The findings have sparked concern among industry advocates who fear that hard-won progress is beginning to fade. Kirsten Schaffer, CEO of WIF, said the results reflect a broader anxiety many have been feeling about the trajectory of the entertainment business. “It confirms what I think a lot of people are witnessing, experiencing, which is that we are backsliding on gender balance,” she said in an interview. Schaffer’s comments underline a growing sense among advocates that the industry’s commitment to inclusive hiring may be weakening, even as many companies publicly pledge to support diversity and representation.
ReFrame, which was founded by the Sundance Institute and WIF in 2017, has become one of the most closely watched arbiters of gender equity in the entertainment industry. The organization awards its ReFrame Stamp to television productions that hire a sufficient number of women, nonbinary people, or trans people in significant roles. Those roles include showrunner, lead actor, co-lead actor, director, and various heads of department across the production. To determine eligibility, the organization uses a detailed point system, which is publicly available and designed to give productions a clear pathway to earning the distinction.
Schaffer noted that the criteria for the Stamp are not meant to be unattainable. “We think we’ve made it relatively easy to get and so the fact that the numbers are moving backward rather than forwards is really an issue,” she said. “We’re looking for forward progress.” She also pointed out that the decline cannot be explained simply by a shrinking number of television productions. “Even though there are fewer television shows being made right now across the industry, this is based on percentages, so the percentages should still stay there,” she added. That distinction is important because it suggests that, even allowing for the broader contraction in the industry, the proportion of gender-balanced productions is falling.
One of the most striking findings in this year’s report concerns lead roles. Only 39 women, nonbinary people, or trans people played lead roles in the season’s top series. That represents the lowest number in seven years. In the previous television season, that number was 44. The decline in leads is part of a broader pattern that suggests women and nonbinary or trans performers are losing ground at the very top of the call sheet, a position that carries both creative influence and visibility.
The report also found a worrying decline in the representation of women of color, nonbinary people of color, and trans people of color in co-lead roles. During the 2024-2025 television season, 55 percent of the most popular series included at least one woman of color, nonbinary person of color, or trans person of color in a crucial supporting role. In the latest season, that figure fell to 47 percent. That drop is particularly concerning because it indicates that the erosion of gender balance is not being shared evenly across all groups. Instead, people who are marginalized both by gender and by race appear to be experiencing steeper losses.
Behind the camera, the report paints a mixed picture. The percentage of showrunners who are women, nonbinary people, or trans people ticked up slightly, but the numbers remain low. In the latest season, 31 people in that category served as showrunners, compared with 29 in the previous season. While the increase is welcome, the overall figure still underscores how underrepresented these groups remain in one of the most powerful positions in television production.
Writing staffs showed signs of progress. The number of series in which at least half of the episodes were written by women or nonbinary people rose from 49 in the previous season to 51 in the latest season. That modest improvement suggests that some parts of the creative pipeline are maintaining, or even strengthening, their commitment to gender-balanced hiring. However, the same cannot be said for directing. The number of series with at least half of their episodes directed by women, nonbinary people, or trans people dropped from 38 in the 2024-2025 season to 32 in the 2025-2026 season. That shift represents a meaningful decline in a role that is often a key stepping stone for career advancement in television.
The report also examined several below-the-line crew positions, and the findings there were mixed as well. Representation among first assistant directors dipped by seven percent. Production designers experienced a four percent decline, and directors of photography saw a three percent decrease. But there were some positive notes. Representation among stunt coordinators rose by 12 percent. Composers saw a two percent increase, and visual effects supervisors gained three percent. These numbers suggest that the story of gender-balanced hiring in television is not uniformly discouraging, but the overall trajectory remains a cause for concern.
One of the most important themes in the ReFrame report is the outsized role that showrunners play in shaping a production’s overall hiring patterns. Historically, ReFrame has found that when a woman is in charge as showrunner, the rest of the production is far more likely to be gender-balanced. This past season, 87 percent of the series that received the ReFrame Stamp had a woman showrunner. In the previous season, that number was nearly 93 percent. Even with the slight decline, the correlation remains strong, reinforcing the idea that representation at the highest level of a series creates opportunities throughout the entire production.
The ReFrame report also explored the relationship between gender-balanced hiring and a series’ fate on the schedule. The findings suggest that inclusive productions may be slightly more resilient. Of the 27 first-season series that received the Stamp, 24 were renewed, which amounts to 89 percent. Among first-season series that did not receive the Stamp, 38 of 45, or 84 percent, were renewed. The report also tracked cancellations during the 2024-2025 television season. Eleven shows were cancelled in that period. Of those, four had received the ReFrame Stamp and seven had not. While the sample sizes are not enormous, the data points toward a modest but real relationship between gender-balanced hiring and a show’s likelihood of continuing.
The complete list of ReFrame Stamp recipients for the 2025-2026 television season includes a wide range of shows across streaming platforms and broadcast networks. The honorees are:
56 Days / Amazon Prime Video: Season 1
All Her Fault / Peacock: Season 1
Ballard / Amazon Prime Video: Season 1
Bridgerton / Netflix: Season 4
Down Cemetery Road / Apple TV: Season 1
Euphoria / HBO: Season 3
Fallout / Amazon Prime Video: Season 2
Gen V / Amazon Prime Video: Season 2
Ginny & Georgia / Netflix: Season 3
High Potential / ABC: Season 2
His & Hers / Netflix: Season 1
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast / Netflix: Season 1
Industry / HBO Max: Season 4
Ironheart / Disney+: Season 1
IT: Welcome to Derry / HBO: Season 1
Leanne / Netflix: Season 1
Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette / Hulu: Season 1
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters / Apple TV: Season 2
Nobody Wants This / Netflix: Season 2
Only Murders in the Building / Hulu: Season 5
Ponies / Peacock: Season 1
Scarpetta / Amazon Prime Video: Season 1
Something Very Bad is Going to Happen / Netflix: Season 1
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy / Paramount+: Season 1
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds / Paramount+: Season 3
Task / HBO: Season 1
The Bear / Hulu: Season 4
The Beast in Me / Netflix: Season 1
The Boys / Amazon Prime Video: Season 5
The Diplomat / Netflix: Season 3
The Gilded Age / HBO: Season 3
The Girlfriend / Amazon Prime Video: Season 1
The Hunting Wives / Netflix: Season 1
The Lincoln Lawyer / Netflix: Season 4
The Madison / Paramount+: Season 1
The Miniature Wife / Peacock: Season 1
The Summer I Turned Pretty / Amazon Prime Video: Season 3
The Testaments / Hulu: Season 1
Wayward / Netflix: Season 1
We Were Liars / Amazon Prime Video: Season 1
Wednesday / Netflix: Season 2
Wonder Man / Disney+: Season 1
Taken together, the report paints a sobering picture of an industry that has not yet secured the gains it once appeared to be making. While some categories have improved, the overall trend is one of stagnation or decline. The fact that fewer women and nonbinary or trans people are leading the most popular series, and that their representation in key supporting and crew roles is slipping, suggests that the entertainment industry must do more than simply articulate values of inclusion. It must back those values with sustained, measurable action. For advocates like Schaffer, the message is clear: without deliberate effort, the progress achieved over the past several years can easily be lost, and the hope of achieving true gender balance in television will remain out of reach.
