Gender-balanced hiring slips on TV's top 100 series, ReFrame finds
Fewer of television's most-watched series met the test for gender-balanced hiring this season.
Only 42 of the top 100 series in 2025-2026 earned the ReFrame Stamp, down three percentage points on the year before, according to ReFrame in collaboration with WIF, as reported on 15 October 2026 by The Hollywood Reporter. Lead roles saw the sharpest fall. Just 39 women or nonbinary or trans people held lead parts across those 100 series, down from 44 last season and the lowest count in seven years.
The Stamp is ReFrame's marker for gender-balanced production. ReFrame, an organisation founded by the Sundance Institute and WIF in 2017, awards it through a points system. Points are earned for hiring women, nonbinary or trans people in key posts including showrunner, the person with overall creative charge of a series, lead and co-lead actor, director and heads of department.
Supporting roles also slipped. In 2024-2025, 55% of the most popular series had at least one woman of colour, nonbinary or trans person of colour in a key supporting part. In 2025-2026 that share was 47%.
Behind the camera the picture was mixed. The number of series led by a woman or nonbinary or trans showrunner rose from 29 to 31. Series with at least half their episodes written by women or nonbinary people increased from 49 to 51. But series with at least half their episodes directed by women or nonbinary people fell from 38 to 32.
Crew jobs moved in both directions. First assistant directors, the crew managers who run the shooting day, dropped seven percent. Production designers fell four percent. Directors of photography, who head the camera and lighting teams, fell three percent. In contrast, stunt coordinators rose 12 percent, visual effects supervisors rose three percent and composers rose two percent.
The report links one role to the wider result. In 2025-2026, 87% of series awarded the Stamp had a woman showrunner, compared with nearly 93% the season before.
What makes this stand out is the split screen. Hiring slipped in front of the camera and in the director's chair, while writing rooms and the showrunner ranks held steady or grew.
Renewal numbers ran in the other direction, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Of 27 first-season series that earned the Stamp, 24 were renewed. That is 89%. Of 45 first-season series without the Stamp, 38 were renewed. That is 84%. In the 2024-2025 season, 11 shows were cancelled in total, four with the Stamp and seven without it.
The findings come from ReFrame's annual report on Gender and Hiring in TV, due in October 2026. For crews and writers' rooms, the next test is whether those renewed series carry their hiring patterns into a second season.
