The TCA (Television Critics Association) is mainly men

What is The TCA?
(and who cares if they met?)

The Television Critics Association, often referred to as The TCA, just held their bi-annual meetings, and for once they weren't as secretive as normal. For the first year ever social networking was allowed within the meetings, which meant that dozens of people slouched in chairs throughout the conference rooms tweeting their reactions to the networks' presentations of their newest shows.

If you're curious about what happened in these usually secretive meetings you can just Google 'TCA twitter'.

During the yearly TCA meeting television critics from all over the country gather to hear spiels from networks who are hoping to win them over. The networks are all praying that the snippets they display of their new shows gain popularity amongst the critics, and get favorable reviews both in print and online (which will ultimately translate to a higher initial number of viewers). Essentially, they're hoping for free publicity. And if they don't get it their show could easily crash and burn. Presence on the internet (and particularity good press) is more important than ever.

But who are these TV critics who hold the potential to sway the American public to such a large degree? For one thing, they're largely men. If you go to The TCA website you can see a list of several critics who are members (click on them to see which publications they write for). Of the 77 television critics listed only 24 of them are women. For those of you who prefer percentages, that means that only 31% of the television industry's most recognized TV critics are female. Which really begs the question, how does that influence which shows gain popularity? Sure, gender isn't everything, but it does play some role in our reactions to what we see onscreen. If it didn't the whole concept of chick flicks would be a moot point.

How to you feel about the fact that published television critics are predominantly men? And do you think that plays a role in how different TV shows are received by the American public?