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Lesli Linka Glatter and NBC Partner on Plan to Recruit and Train More Female TV Directors

TCA: The new "Female Forward" initiative aims to place at least 10 new female directors on NBC shows annually.
Lesli Linka Glatter and NBC Partner to Train More Female TV Directors
Lesli Linka Glatter

Just days after CBS found itself under fire by reporters for its diversity record, NBC arrived at the Television Critics Association press tour armed with a new inclusion plan.

NBC unveiled its new annual “Female Forward” initiative on Thursday, pledging to work toward gender parity among scripted series directors. NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke and director Lesli Linka Glatter (“Homeland”), who’s directing the network’s “Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders,” the plan will have 10 female directors shadow up to three episodes of an NBC series, which will lead to a commitment for each one to direct at least one episode of the series she shadows.

“Female Forward” will begin with the 2018-19 season on ten NBC series.

“It’s been a collective and urgent goal of ours to identify more female directors,” Salke said. “We strongly believe women can and should be at the forefront of telling compelling stories, and I hope the guaranteed directing component will have real impact on our shows as well as the industry.”

Linka Glatter called the new initiative a “game changer.”

“It shouldn’t be harder for our daughters to direct than for our sons. It should be an equal playing field,” Linka Glatter said.

The new initaitive comes as a new addition to NBC’s previously existing Emerging Directors Program, which Karen Horne, Senior Vice President, Programming Talent Development & Inclusion, has overseen for nearly a decade.

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