ReFrame and IMDbPro have awarded 62 television and streaming series their first-ever ReFrame Stamp for Television, Variety has learned exclusively.
The ReFrame Stamp was created by ReFrame, a coalition of industry professionals founded by Women in Film and the Sundance Institute, to recognize projects that have demonstrated success in gender-balanced hiring. Productions that receive the stamp are those that hire female-identifying people in four out of eight critical areas of production, including writing, directing, showrunning, producing, lead acting roles, season regular acting roles, department heads and crew members. Those series must reflect diversity across all of the season, not just specific episodes. The data was collected with IMDbPro.
The inaugural round of recipients include all five of Shonda Rhimes’ shows, Frankie Shaw’s “SMILF,” Issa Rae’s “Insecure,” Tanya Saracho’s “Vida,” “Broad City” from Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson and Amy Sherman-Palladino’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” among others. Over 350 scripted television programs — airing between June 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018 — were considered to receive the stamp.
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“The power of these things is that there will be people that are thrilled they got the stamp and people who go, ‘I wish I got the stamp — but I didn’t, so what can I do to get it?’” says Nina Jacobson, producer and ReFrame Ambassador. “It gives decision-makers the opportunity to chase it and to change course and to look at the room you’re in, the set you’re on, and say, ‘Am I paying attention? Every time I make a hire, am I paying attention?’”
On a network level, ABC has six shows that earned the stamp: Rhimes’ “For the People,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” “Scandal” and “Station 19,” plus “Marvel’s “Agents of SHIELD.” The CW has three (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” “Jane the Virgin” and Supergirl”), NBC has two (“Chicago Med” and “This is Us”), and Fox and CBS have one each. For Fox, “Empire” earned the stamp, while for CBS it was “Madam Secretary.” CBS’ streaming platform All Access also had one show (“The Good Fight”) that earned a stamp.
For cable, Lifetime leads with six projects, notably all TV movies: “Faith Under Fire: The Antoinette Tuff Story,” “Flint,” “Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance,” “I Am Elizabeth Smart,” “Story of a Girl” and “The Simone Biles Story: Courage to Soar.”
Starz has five series across drama and limited categories (“Howards End,” “Outlander,” “Sweetbitter,” “The Girlfriend Experience: Bria” and “Vida”). TBS has three (“Search Party,” “The Detour” and “The Last OG”). Freeform has two (“Famous in Love” and “The Bold Type”); PBS has two (“Call the Midwife” and “Little Women”); Showtime has two (“The Chi” and “SMILF”) and TNT also has two (“Animal Kingdom” and “Claws”).
HBO (“Insecure”), FX (“Better Things”), Comedy Central (“Broad City”), TruTV (“I’m Sorry”), BBC America (“Killing Eve”), OWN (“Queen Sugar”) and TV Land (“Teachers”) each have one series that earned the stamp.
Among streamers, Netflix leads with eight shows: “Dear White People,” “GLOW,” “Grace and Frankie,” “Marvel’s Jessica Jones,” “Love,” “One Day at a Time,” “Orange is the New Black” and “Seven Seconds.” Amazon has five shows (“An American Girl Story: Summer Camp, Friends for Life,” “Dino Dana,” “Just Add Magic,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Transparent”), while YouTube has four (“Foursome,” “Lace Up: The Ultimate Sneaker Challenge,” “Step Up: High Water” and “Youth & Consequences”) and Hulu has two (“The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Mindy Project”).
“Now as you start to accumulate a data set, you can see who is getting it right more and why — and who isn’t. … You can start to really look at, systemically, where are people advancing, and where are they stuck in the past?” Jacobson says. “I’ve always loved this Jean-Luc Godard quote that ‘It’s not to make political films, it’s to make films politically.’ And so it’s the same principle. Subject matter is critical, but there are very worthy stories to make that may not necessarily be, on the surface of them, female-driven, but they can still be powered by inclusion, and they will be better for it.”