Staff Size Guide Dashboard Dashboard

(July 2025)

The 2023 MBA introduced requirements for the number of writers who must be hired in writers’ rooms and development rooms (rooms that start without a production order) for television and streaming series. These minimums provide a floor, giving showrunners a starting point to negotiate better-than-minimum staffing terms to make sure there are enough writers for the needs of the show. The Guild tracks staff sizes using information from the companies as well as information provided by members working in rooms. Using this information, we are able to compile this new guide to series staff sizes, based on data from more than three hundred development rooms and writers’ rooms convened since the start of the 2023 MBA.¹

Post-Greenlight Writers’ Rooms Staff Sizes

The staffing requirements for writers’ rooms on post-greenlight series are determined by the number of episodes ordered. The minimum number of writers required ranges from 3 writers for 6 or fewer episodes to 6 writers for 13 or more episodes. Across all rooms, typical staff sizes are above the minimums required; the median number of writers hired (including the showrunner) ranges from 6 to 11 writers for half-hour series and from 5 to 8 writers for one-hour series.

Post-Greenlight Writers’ Rooms by Episode Order
		Median Staff Size		Maximum Reported Staff Size
# of episodes	Minimum Writers Required	Half-Hour	One-Hour	Half-Hour	One-Hour
1 to 6	3	6	5	7	8
7 to 12	5	8	7	12	12
13 or more	6	11	8	23	13

A “post-greenlight” writers’ room is a room that began with a firm commitment from the company to production of the season.

The number of writers hired in a writers’ room also varies based on episode length (half-hour versus one-hour) and by the intended market of the show. The vast majority of streaming series, as well as basic cable and pay TV series, have between 7 to 12 episodes, meaning that the applicable minimum staff is typically 5 writers. Network shows, meanwhile, largely have episode orders of 13 or more, with a required minimum staff size of 6 writers.

Half-hour shows typically have larger staffs; the median staff size for the typical episode order ranges from 8 for streaming series and basic cable/pay TV series to 12 for network series. The maximum reported staff size for these shows is 12 for streaming half-hour series, 11 for basic cable/pay TV half-hour series, and 23 for network half-hour series.

Half-Hour Post-Greenlight Writers’ Rooms by Market
Market	Median Episode Order	Minimum Writers Required	Staff Size
			Median	Maximum Reported
Streaming	7 to 12	5	8	12
Basic Cable/Pay TV	7 to 12	5	8	11
Network	13 or more	6	12	23

One-hour shows across markets have smaller rooms. For the typical episode orders, these shows had a median staff size of 6 writers for basic cable/pay TV series, 7 for streaming series, and 9 for network series. The maximum reported staff size for these shows is 10 for streaming one-hour series, 12 for basic cable/pay TV one-hour series, and 13 for network one-hour series.

One-Hour Post-Greenlight Writers’ Rooms by Market
Market	Median Episode Order	Minimum Writers Required	Staff Size
			Median	Maximum Reported
Streaming	7 to 12	5	7	10
Basic Cable/Pay TV	7 to 12	5	6	12
Network	13 or more	6	9	13

Medians are the mid-point; just over half of all one-hour streaming rooms with an episode order between 7 and 12 have 7 writers or more.

Development Rooms Staff Sizes

Development rooms, or rooms that begin without a production order in place, must have a minimum of three writer-producers.² Development rooms for the second season or later, where writers are guaranteed 20 weeks or more, have staffing minimums based on anticipated number of episodes. More than 120 development rooms have convened since the start of the 2023 MBA, and over three-quarters of those rooms were guaranteed 20 weeks or more.

Writers Required in a Development Room
# of episodes anticipated	Season 1	Season 2 or later
		Less than 20 weeks guaranteed	20 weeks or more guaranteed
1 to 6	3	3	3
7 to 12	3	3	5
13 or more	3	3	6

Typical staff sizes in these streaming development rooms are above the minimums required; the median number of writers (including the showrunner) hired ranges from 8 writers for half-hour series to 7 writers for one-hour series. The maximum reported staff size hired in streaming development rooms, with anticipated episode orders of 7 to 12 episodes, is 14 for half-hour series and 11 for one-hour series.

Development Rooms for Streaming Series, Anticipated 7 to 12 Episodes
Episode Length	Minimum Writers Required	Median Staff Size	Maximum Reported Staff Size
Half-Hour	3 or 5	8	14
One-Hour	3 or 5	7	11

Writers in Production

The 2023 MBA also introduced a requirement that two writers, in addition to the showrunner, must be employed during production for the lesser of 20 weeks or the duration of production. This requirement applies to single-camera streaming and pay TV shows that are filmed entirely in the U.S. or Canada. 

To provide the showrunner flexibility and to create opportunities for more writers to gain production experience, the two minimum positions can be used for more than two writers, so long as the total weeks worked by the additional writers adds up to the minimum required for each position. For instance, for a show with a 30-week production period, the company can either employ 2 writer-producers for 20 weeks each or employ 4 writers for 10 weeks. 

If you have questions about writers employed during production or believe that the number of writers employed during production is below the minimum required, contact Enforcement Specialist Greg Goodness.

Additional Resources

Negotiating with a studio over the size of your writers’ room staff? In addition to using this guide as a resource, you can also reach out to Enforcement Specialist Greg Goodness for comparable staff sizes at specific studios. 

If you are negotiating with a studio and would like to be put in touch with another showrunner who can support you and offer tips as you negotiate, contact Senior Organizer Leila Luperchio. 

See the 2023 MBA Schedule of Minimums to learn more about minimum staff sizes.

¹This guide combines the basic cable and pay TV markets due to small sample sizes for those areas of work. The staff size medians for basic cable/pay TV series, half-hour series across all markets, and for series with 1 to 6 episodes are based on relatively small sample sizes.

²Writer-Producers include writer titles from Co-Producer through Showrunner.