Female-Led Stories Still Scarce on Screen Despite Clear Demand: Report

According to a new report from data firm Luminate, female-led stories are scarce on television. The analysis found that shows centered on women accounted for just 11 percent of first-run series from the start of 2025 through the third quarter of 2026, despite making up 17 percent of minutes aired in the United States. This may seem like a small gap […]

According to a new report from data firm Luminate, female-led stories are lacking on TV.

According to the analysis, female-centered shows accounted for just 11 percent of premieres from the start of 2025 through the third quarter of 2026, despite accounting for 17 percent of airtime minutes in the United States. That may seem like a small gap between supply and demand, but Luminate says the data "suggests that female-centric series are getting more watch time than the volume of these shows."

In particular, serial dramas about women have not been released. That subset, which includes titles like Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale and Furious or Showtime's Yellowjackets, makes up a third of the female-centric stories released over most of the past two years, but 44 percent of the minutes are for such shows. Related News 'Jellowjackets': The Survivors Return Home in fourth and final season teaser at SCAD Film Festival TV Sidebar for screenings of 'Good Girl,' 'Furious,' 'VisionQuest' and 'The Lowdown'

Comment that the "significant unmet demand" for female-led shows on television shouldn't come as a surprise, given the buzz they generate when they air. Last year, The Handmaid's Tale was Hulu's most-watched title as it wrapped its sixth season. Even more recently, Furious , starring Emmy Rossum, increased its audience by 90 percent in just five weeks after its release, Disney announced in September. Watch on Deadline

There is no lack of any category or genre, although women-oriented stories. For example, Luminet oversaturates the supply of women's documentaries and foreign-language films in the US market. Meanwhile, thrillers and thrillers, literary adaptations, continue to be in short supply.

There is a 16-point difference for literary adaptations, which account for nearly a third of the minutes aired on female-led fiction, but only 16 percent of the supply, Luminet's report shows.

Naturally, some outliers like Bridgerton and The Handmaid's Tale contribute to this deviation, but it still shows that there's plenty of room for more in the space. Broadcasters have clearly picked up on this demand and are now more bullish, especially with female-led literary adaptations. Following the successes of The Summer I Turned Pretty and Off Campus, Prime Video has spawned a slew of upcoming female-centric adaptations, from Rebecca Yaros' Fourth Wing to Elsie Silver's Rose Hill.

Luminet also points to Netflix's recent adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden, which has been one of the most-watched weekly TV titles on Netflix since its inception.

"In a TV landscape where female-led dramas are still rare enough to be worth mentioning, there's clearly a healthy appetite for them among audiences," the report said.

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