showrunner

Writer Alex Epstein, in his book and blog Crafty Screenwriting, defines a showrunner as "the person responsible for all creative aspects of the show and responsible only to the network (and production company, if it's not [their] production company). The boss. Usually a writer. Traditionally, the executive producer of a television program was the chief executive, responsible for the show's creative direction and production. Over time, the title of executive producer was applied to a wider range of roles—from a senior writer, to someone who arranges financing, to an "angel" who holds the title as an honorific with no management duties in return for providing backing capital. The term showrunner was created to identify the executive producer who holds ultimate management and creative authority for the program."{{cite web|author=Epstein, Alex|url=http://complicationsensue.blogspot.com/2005/08/tentative-glossary.html|title=Tentative Glossary|publisher=Complications Ensue: The Crafty Screenwriting, TV and Game Writing Blog|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=August 24, 2005|access-date=August 29, 2023|archive-date=August 10, 2020|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200810073651/https://complicationsensue.blogspot.com/2005/08/tentative-glossary.html}} The contract gained by the Writers Guild of America in the 2023 strike now explicitly defines "showrunner" as writers and people responsible for making hiring decisions regarding a project's other staff writers.{{cite web | url=https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/30/23892324/these-are-the-biggest-wins-in-the-wgas-new-labor-contract | title=These are the biggest wins in the WGA's new labor contract | date=September 30, 2023 }}

In a January 1990 submission to the United States Congress House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Administration of Justice, Barney Rosenzweig (Executive Vice President and Chairman, Television Division of Weintraub Entertainment Group) wrote:{{Cite book |last=Justice |first=United States Congress House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Administration of |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-4gXCTIk7UgC&dq=%22show+runner%22&pg=PA436 |title=Moral Rights and the Motion Picture Industry: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Administration of Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred First Congress, Second Session, January 9, 1990 |date=1991 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |language=en}}{{blockquote|In the early days of Hollywood, no one questioned what Producer David O. Selznick was to Gone with the Wind, or Pandro Berman to all those Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers {{sic}} films, or Walt Disney to his early work, or Arthur Freed to the MGM musical. They were the producers... the storytellers. Today in television, the producer is still that person: the show-runner. Television is a producer's medium. Ask the people who make and stand behind their shows – from Aaron Spelling to Stephen Cannell, Stephen Bochco, Len Hill, Edgar Scherick or Phil de Guerre [Philip DeGuere Jr.]. The definition of who does what in television today is not that different from what it was generally in Hollywood before a few critics in France coined the term 'auteur' and the Writer's Guild took the producers, their traditional nemesis, to court – thus all but destroying the Producer's Guild and giving leave for the studios themselves to usurp the name producer.}}

Los Angeles Times columnist Scott Collins describes showrunners as:[http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-channel23nov23,0,5609336.story "Showrunners run the show"], "Channel Island" column, Los Angeles Times, 23 November 2007

{{blockquote|"Hyphenates", a curious hybrid of starry-eyed artists and tough-as-nails operational managers. They're not just writers; they're not just producers. They hire and fire writers and crew members, develop story lines, write scripts, cast actors, mind budgets and run interference with studio and network bosses. It's one of the most unusual and demanding, right-brain/left-brain job descriptions in the entertainment world....[S]howrunners make – and often create – the show and now more than ever, shows are the only things that matter. In the "long tail" entertainment economy, viewers don't watch networks. They don't even care about networks. They watch shows. And they don't care how they get them.}}

In a 2011 article in The Australian, Shane Brennan, the showrunner for NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles, described the position thus:

{{blockquote|He explains the moniker was created to identify the producer who actually held ultimate management and creative authority for the program, given the way the honorific 'executive producer' was applied to a wider range of roles. There's also the fact that anyone with any power wanted a producer's credit, including the leading actors, who often did no more than say the writers' lines. "It had got to the stage where it was incredibly confusing; there were so many production credits no one knew who was responsible," he says.{{Cite news |last=Blundell |first=Graeme |date=April 23, 2011 |title=Getting the run of the place |work=The Australian |url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/getting-the-run-of-the-place/story-e6frg8n6-1226041663244 |access-date=May 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713183431/https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/getting-the-run-of-the-place/story-e6frg8n6-1226041663244 |archive-date=2011-07-13}}}}

In June 2023, Andy Greenwald of Briarpatch said of the title of showrunner, "It's a made-up title, and it's not a paid position". Without an overall deal, he said, a showrunner could be paid less than a co-executive producer "because everything else that I do — from hiring the writers, to being on set and producing, to being in post for months, then doing press — is not compensated". With the end of the streaming wars and Hollywood emphasizing profitability, overall deals became much rarer. Reduced compensation for showrunners and others in the writers' room helped cause the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.{{Cite magazine |last1=Adalian |first1=Josef |last2=Brown |first2=Lane |date=2023-06-06 |title=The Binge Purge |url=https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/streaming-industry-netflix-max-disney-hulu-apple-tv-prime-video-peacock-paramount.html |access-date=January 8, 2024 |magazine=Vulture|language=en-us|archive-date=August 1, 2023|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230801200302/https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/streaming-industry-netflix-max-disney-hulu-apple-tv-prime-video-peacock-paramount.html}} In an interview that same month with Vox, writer Erica Saleh, who developed the series One of Us Is Lying, listed the function and structure of the personnel in WGA writers' rooms, explaining that showrunners determine the tone and genre of the show, and break down the structure of a season, its episodes, and storylines, prior to actual production of the program. Saleh listed the hierarchy of the staff on WGA shows, in order of authority:{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILaU78Oo7XM|title=How streaming caused the TV writers strike|magazine=Vox|via=YouTube|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=June 7, 2023|access-date=July 1, 2023|archive-date=July 1, 2023|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/ILaU78Oo7XM}}

The Writers Guild of Canada, the union representing screenwriters in Canada, established the Showrunner Award in 2007, at the annual Canadian Screenwriting Awards. The first Showrunner Award was presented in April 2007 to Brad Wright, executive producer of Stargate Atlantis and Stargate SG-1.{{cite web|url=http://www.wgc.ca/cscs_awards/past_awards/csa_2007.html|title=2007 Canadian Screenwriting Awards|access-date=2008-07-11|publisher=Writers Guild of Canada}}

In the first decade of the 21st century, the concept of a showrunner, specifically interpreted as a writer or presenter with overall responsibility for a television production, began to spread to the British television industry.{{cite news |title= Britain's got talent – and it's untouchable |first=Mark |last=Lawson |author-link=Mark Lawson |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/oct/22/mondaymediasection2 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=October 22, 2007 |access-date=April 27, 2010}} "Nonetheless, the show runner production model is still less common in drama production in the UK" than it is in the U.S., scholars Ruth McElroy and Caitriona Noonan wrote in 2019.{{cite book |last1=McElroy |first1=Ruth |last2=Noonan |first2=Caitriona |title=Producing British television drama : local production in a global era |date=2019 |publisher=Springer |location=London |isbn=9781137578754 |page=57 }}

The first British comedy series to use the term was My Family (2000–11), which had several showrunners in succession. Initially, the show was overseen by creator Fred Barron from series 1–4. Ian Brown and James Hendrie took over for series 5, followed by American writer Tom Leopold for series 6. Former Cheers showrunner Tom Anderson was in charge from series 7 to the final series, series 11.{{cite web|url=http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/my_family/trivia/|title=My Family|work=comedy.co.uk}}

The first writer appointed the role of showrunner on a British primetime drama was Tony McHale, writer and creator of Holby City, in 2005.{{cite news |title=Holby City exec producer to leave |first=John |last=Plunkett |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/dec/14/hoby-city-exec-producer-leave |newspaper=The Guardian |date=December 14, 2009 |access-date=April 27, 2010}} Jed Mercurio had carried out a similar role on the less conspicuous medical drama Bodies (2004–2006).{{cite web|last=Brown|first=Maggie|title=Line of Duty's Jed Mercurio|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/09/line-of-duty-jed-mercurio|date=10 February 2014}} But Russell T Davies' work on the 2005 revival of Doctor Who brought the term to prominence in British television (to the extent that in 2009 a writer for The Guardian wrote that "Over here, the concept of 'showrunner' has only made it as far as Doctor Who").{{cite news |title=Is Heroes lost without its superman? |first=Dan |last=Martin |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2009/jun/24/television-science-fiction |newspaper=The Guardian |date=June 24, 2009 |access-date=April 27, 2010}}

In an interview, Davies said that he felt the role of the showrunner was to establish and maintain a consistent tone in a drama.{{cite interview |last=Davies |first=Russell T |subject-link=Russell T Davies |interviewer=Mark Lawson |title=Mark Lawson Talks to... |publisher=BBC Four |date=January 16, 2008 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4GHxx1DOVg | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211104/m4GHxx1DOVg| archive-date=2021-11-04 | url-status=live|access-date=April 27, 2010}}{{cbignore}} Doctor Who remains the most prominent example of a British television programme with a showrunner, with Steven Moffat having taken over the post from Davies from 2010 until 2017.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/paul_cornell_2.shtml |title=Paul Cornell interview |year=2008 |work=BBC Writersroom |publisher=BBC |access-date=April 27, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110124153013/http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/paul_cornell_2.shtml |archive-date=January 24, 2011 |df=mdy-all }} Interviewer refers to Doctor Who as "...one of the few UK series with a showrunner".{{cite news |title=Steven Moffat: The man with a monster of a job |first=Gareth |last=McLean |author-link=Gareth McLean |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/mar/22/stephen-moffat-doctor-who |newspaper=The Guardian |date=March 22, 2010 |access-date=April 27, 2010}} Chris Chibnall later took over from Moffat.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/entries/55e94ef2-0282-494f-a62c-82bd514f02fe|title=Steven Moffat stands down and Chris Chibnall to take over|date=2016-01-23|website=Doctor Who|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-04-10}} Davies returned, following Chibnall's departure. The term has also been used to refer to other writer-producers, such as Cash Carraway on Rain Dogs,{{Cite web |last=Ritman |first=Alex |date=2024-06-14 |title='Rain Dogs' Creator Cash Carraway Signs With CAA (EXCLUSIVE) |url=https://variety.com/2024/tv/global/cash-carraway-rain-dogs-caa-1236037806/ |access-date=2024-10-25 |website=Variety |language=en-US}} Tony Jordan on Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach, Ann McManus on Waterloo Road, Adrian Hodges on Primeval{{cite news |title=Twice the drama at ITV |first=Jason |last=Deans |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/nov/20/broadcasting.ITV |newspaper=The Guardian |date=November 20, 2006 |access-date=April 27, 2010}}
{{cite news |title=Melodrama class |first=Peter |last=Wilby |author-link=Peter Wilby |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/mar/03/ann-mc-manus-bbc-waterloo-road |newspaper=The Guardian |date=March 3, 2009 |access-date=April 27, 2010}}
{{cite news |title=ITV1 saves Primeval from extinction after deal with digital channel Watch |first=Leigh |last=Holmwood |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/sep/29/primeval-itv1-watch-deal-recommissioned |newspaper=The Guardian |date=September 29, 2009 |access-date=April 27, 2010}} and Jed Mercurio on Bodies, Line of Duty,{{cite web|last=Curtis|first=Chris|title=Jed Mercurio: taking aim at the target culture|date=20 September 2012|url=http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/in-depth/the-broadcast-interview/jed-mercurio-taking-aim-at-target-culture/5046826.article|publisher=Broadcastnow.co.uk}} and Critical.

• Television program creator
• Television producer
• Television crew (including Runner, a junior role not to be confused with Showrunner)
• Screenwriter
• Television director
• Producer (radio)
• News director

{{reflist}}

{{TV production}}

Category:Entertainment occupations

Category:Mass media occupations

Category:Television terminology

Category:Broadcasting occupations

Category:Management occupations