The showrunner is the head writer and executive producer of a TV show. Often, they’re also the creator of the show, but not always. Of the three shows that my partner and I have run, we didn’t create any of them. They were created by someone with much less experience than us, and we were tapped to be in charge.
The main responsibility of showrunner lies in the writers room. They decide what stories are going to be told and how to tell them. They’re in charge of the writing and re-writing and it’s an extremely high pressure job. Knowing how to fix a story is a rare skill, (and one that I teach in my screenwriting course) which is why skilled showrunners get paid well.
But what are some of the non-writing responsibilities of a showrunner?
