Women on TV #GoodRead Roundup: Get Ready for Emmy Awards 2015!

by Disney | ABC Television Group [CC BY-ND 2.0], via Flickr

by Disney | ABC Television Group [CC BY-ND 2.0], via Flickr

Are you watching the Emmy Awards this year? Wonder how women are faring on TV? Check out a few of our favorite links about gender equality and television to get ready for Sunday night.

Samantha Bee Trolls Vanity Fair’s All Male Late Night Cover: The countdown begins for Samantha Bee’s new late night show, coming in 2016! Starting in January, Bee will join the extremely small ranks of women hosts in the history of late night TV.

Study: More Women TV Creators and EPs Mean More Women Leads, Writers, Directors, Editors at Indiewire's Women and Hollywood:

Broadcast programs with at least one female creator, for instance, had an average of 50% women writers. On programs with no female creator, that number plummeted down to 15%.

Women Mostly Shut Out Of Directing Television’s Most Popular Shows: Buzzfeed News broke down the gender of directors for Nielson’s top 23 shows in 2014. For each show, they looked at every single episode since the pilot, and the results were dismal:  “Of the 1,816 total episodes, 225 were directed by women — about 12%.” Some not-so-fun-facts to share at your Emmys viewing party:

  • During five seasons, only 4 out of 50 episodes of Game of Thrones have been directed by a woman director.
  • NCIS has been on the air for 12 seasons; 6.7% of their episodes were directed by women.
  • In four seasons, American Horror Story has never had a single episode directed by a woman.

13 of the Emmys 18 Leading Actress Nominees are Over 35: This is Huge: And now for some Emmys related good news! Out of 18 Leading Actress nominees, 13 are women over the age of 35 (the article originally stated 15 but has since been updated). It’s great, and rare, to see this kind of age diversity celebrated, especially for women. Fun fact: At 75, Lily Tomlin (nominated for her role as Frankie in Grace and Frankie) is the oldest nominee in history for the Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series category.

The 'Golden Age for Women on TV' is Actually a Rerun: 25 years ago, women made up half of the comedy series creator nominations. Writer Nell Scovell reflects on the first “golden age for women on TV” in the early 90s, and offers words of wisdom that apply to so much more than television:

Wishful thinking does nothing to solve the problem. In fact, it may make it worse. If you believe things are getting better, you won’t feel the need to do anything. And you certainly won’t feel the need to do anything now. If necessity is the mother of invention, urgency is the uncle of change. Without it, progress slows and then stops and then reverses.

Live-tweet the Emmy Awards with GenderAvenger!

We’ll be on Twitter Sunday night watching the Emmy Awards, and we’d love to see you there. Here’s everything you need to get started:

  1. Follow GenderAvenger: Follow @genderavenger on Twitter and use the #genderavenger and #Emmys2015 hashtags to share your thoughts on women in TV and gender at the Emmy Awards.
  2. Download the GA Tally: We’ll be breaking down gender ratios for each category using the GA Tally. The GA Tally is free, easy to use, and available for iPhone, Android, and as a web app. Download the GA Tally on our homepage today and tally with us on Sunday night!
  3. Start tallying! Not sure what to tally? Click here for the full list of Emmy nominees!
GA Originals, #GAReadsGuest UserThe Emmys, Samantha Bee, Vanity Fair, BuzzFeed, Lily Tomlin, Nell Scovell, tv, IndieWire