What is the state of diversity in TV writing within the entertainment industry?

Not what it should be -- given the presence and splash that women and minorities have made on TV lately.

We've seen "Jane the Virgin's" Golden Globe winner Gina Rodriguez's inspiring and uplifting speech at the Golden Globes, hosted by "SNL" alums, Tina Fey ("30 Rock") and Amy Poehler ("Parks and Recreation"), Melissa McCarthy rocking "SNL's 40th Anniversary Special" to the talents of Shonda Rimes (ABC's Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal"), Crisela Alonzo ("Cristela") and Jennifer Lopez, the producer of "The Fosters," a drama based on an interracial, lesbian couple raising their biological, adopted and foster children.

Despite these strides that appear progressive on the surface, there needs to be more opportunities within the writers' rooms at major networks and beyond.  According to The Writers Guild of America, West, there is an alarming void that needs to be filled in a creative industry where women and minorities' voices should be amplified for they are a crucial part of the diversity in storytelling.

With that said, The Writers Guild of America, West has issued the findings of its 2015 Television Staffing Brief, to analyze the state of diversity in writing for television within the entertainment industry.

To put things into perspective, the WGAW's 2015 report examines employment patterns for nearly 3,000 writers working on close to 300 TV shows airing on 36 broadcast and cable networks during the 2013-14 season.  It zeroes in on three specific groups who have traditionally been underemployed in industry -- women, minority, and older writers.

The brief delves into the writers' rooms and takes data and inventory of each writer by gender, race, and age for TV shows covered, including the latest data from the most recent TV season and breaks down the stats by show and network to determine trends for diverse TV writers.

What did the findings reveal?

"Not only has very little changed since the 2011-12 TV season examined in the Guild's previous report in the series - the 2013 WGAW TV Staffing Brief, which revealed 'pockets of promise for diverse television writers amidst minimal overall progress' - the situation has grown worse since then. In fact, women and minorities have actually lost ground as compared to their white male counterparts since the last brief, both in terms of overall staff positions and in higher-level executive producer ranks," according to the report.

On the flip side, it turns out the "older" you are, meaning over 40 years old, you have more of a presence - and "continue to claim a majority of all staff writer positions." However, after 50, the reports shows that employment prospects drop dramatically. "Such stark statistics continue to illustrate that the entertainment industry remains a glaringly unlevel playing field." 

The author of the report, Dr. Darnell M. Hunt, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA and professor of sociology shared his thoughts on the matter.

"Over the years, the fortunes of diverse writers in the television sector have ebbed and flowed.  While the general pattern consists of an upward trajectory in diverse sector employment, the rate of progress has failed to keep pace with the rapid diversification of the nation's population. This is significant not only in terms of employment opportunity but also in terms of industry bottom-line considerations," Hunt explained. 

"Indeed, research is beginning to confirm the common-sense notion that increasingly diverse audiences desire more diverse storytelling. When diverse voices are marginalized or missing altogether in the writers' room, it is less likely that the stories told will hit the mark."

Over the past decade, there have been some "incremental gains" in TV employment by minority and women writers, but the 2013-14 season saw their share of TV staff employment decline across the board. Overall, minority TV staffing doesn't add up when compared to the actual minority demographics of the U.S. population. "Diverse writers continue to be substantially underrepresented on TV writing staffs as a whole."

Women writers accounted for 29 percent of TV staff employment during the 2012-13 season, down from 30.5 percent in 2011-12. Minorities accounted for 13.7 percent of TV staff employment during the 2013-14 season, down from 15.6 percent in 2011-12.

Does the duration of a show make a difference? Apparently, it does. When it comes to 60-minute shows versus 30-minute shows, minority writers continue to staff 60-minute shows more often than 30-minute shows.

During the 2013-2014 season, 61.2 percent of minority staff writers worked on 60-minute shows, while only 38.2 percent worked on 30-minute shows. Multiracial writers and Latino writers were among the most likely minority writers to staff 60-minute shows -- 69.6 percent of the time (48 writers) and 65.3 percent of the time (49 writers), respectively, acccording to the report.

There's not a lot of diversity in Late Night, Talk, Game Shows, etc. During the 2013-14 season, women occupied only 18 percent of other programming staff positions (compared to 29 percent overall) and minorities claimed only 3.5 percent of these positions (compared to 13.7 percent overall).  Women were underrepresented by a factor of nearly 3 to 1 in other programming staff positions and minorities by nearly 11 to 1.

The top dogs in TV production don' have a lot of diversity, either -- minority share of executive producers has declined, as well. Minorities occupied only 5.5 percent of Executive Producer positions during the 2013-14 season, down from 7.8 percent in 2011-12.

Minority writers are also underrepresented at major broadcast networks -- ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. 

During the 2013-2014 season, minorities were underrepresented by a factor of more than 2 to 1 among writers staffing shows at the major broadcast networks.

Minorities claimed 16.1 percent of the positions at ABC, 14.2 percent of the positions at NBC, 13.9 percent of the positions at Fox, and just 11.3 percent of the positions at CBS (where minorities were underrepresented by a factor of more than 3 to 1 among writers).

"Much work remains to be done before diverse writers are adequately incorporated into the television industry, and we are losing ground in this effort as the nation races toward the not-too-distant day when it becomes majority minority... " Hunt added. "Findings like these highlight a glaring disconnect between the increasing diversity of audiences and business-as-usual practices in the Hollywood industry. The fact is that writers' rooms simply do not reflect the America of today or the America that is steadily emerging."