ITV will no longer commission comedy shows with all-male writers' rooms, the broadcaster's head of comedy has said.
Saskia Schuster said she realised last year that "an awful lot of my comedy entertainment shows are made up of all-male writing teams".
She said: "Too often the writing room is not sensitively run. It can be aggressive and slightly bullying."
She has now changed ITV's contracts, and female writers have been hired to join shows like ITV2's Celebability.
There has been "a significant lack of shows written by women or with women on the writing teams", she said.
Last year, when reviewing the gender balance of sitcom scripts she was sent, she realised that for every script she received from a female writer, she got five from men.
After consulting writers, producers, agents and performers, "the first thing I did was I changed my terms of commissioning," she told Channel 4's Diverse Festival in Bradford on Monday. "I won't commission anything with an all-male writing team."
Ms Schuster has launched a scheme called Comedy 50:50 to encourage more female comedy writers. She said female writers struggle because:
"There can all too often be a sense of tokenism towards the lone female," she wrote on the Comedy 50:50 website. "Or the dominant perception is that the female is there purely so the production can hit quotas."
- It is difficult to compete for jobs with men who have more writing credits
- They can't find producers who "get" their voice and can develop their script to its full potential
- They don't thrive as the lone female voice in a writers' room
She has now changed ITV's contracts so any shows that are commissioned or recommissioned "must aim towards 50:50 gender representation".
Discuss Female Comedians (aka Comediennes) in the TalkCeltic Pub area at TalkCeltic.net.
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Hopefully the female writers are a bit funnier than the female stand ups.
Gully Sands, Drakhan, McChiellini.. and 7 others like this. -
Well, if that wasn't the case before it sure as * will be now. More diversity hire nonsense. Our future dystopia must be perfectly balanced and symmetrical in color and gender.Fully87, Aidan O’Shea and Artorias like this.
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I'm slightly unsettled that we're in agreement :celtman2: ...but aye this trying to fit every job, training course, committee into an exact proportional representation of society is nonsensical. The answer to discrimination is never more discrimination.Peej, Gyp Rosetti, Keano88 and 3 others like this.
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I like the idea :50: There are some funny ladies out there.
But I for one cannot watch a Female stand up comedian, I have yet to find any of them funny! All my family, friends are the same, why is there no decent female stand up comedians? -
Comedy isn't sensitive enough?
Well there goes any * chance of humour on itv.
She openly admits that of all the scripts sent to her, 1in 5 is from a female... 20%
Yet she wants to make the job a 50% male female split?
Aye makes sense.
Sent from my F8331 using TapatalkGully Sands likes this. -
FATLAZYBHOY Born in the steamie Gold Member
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Wummin and men have a different sense of humour.
We find someone falling down a hole funny
The make jokes of menstrual cramps and unicorns.Gully Sands and Slaw like this. -
Callum McGregor The Captain Gold Member
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This is a good idea.
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Big Mick likes this.
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Discrimination based on gender is a good idea?
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A ‘radical’ suggestion I raised in a university class and was widely rounded on :giggle1:M.E.T.H.O.D MAN, Gully Sands, Slaw and 1 other person like this.
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Callum McGregor The Captain Gold Member
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No, of course not, but that’s not what this is. -
Of course it is.
If a comedy show requires 5 writers and the 5 best/most suited applicants are male then at least 1 of those will be precluded from getting the job.Jax Teller, Xatraps, Gyp Rosetti and 2 others like this. -
The IRA
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Will be filled up with white middle-class women with Oxbridge degrees.
That well-known oppressed class.Murph-E likes this. -
Question -
If an all-male writer room wants a show to be commissioned by ITV, will it be commissioned if one of said male writers claims to 'feel' like a woman?Xatraps and CelticBhoyDavid like this. -
It absolutely is mate.
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Sometimes I wish I went to uni just to stick it up to these mad leftist *.
Sorry for the triple post, my bad.Gully Sands and Aidan O’Shea like this.
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