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In short, the executive producer who serves as the head writer. The longer answer is that the showrunner is the person who gives the show its tone and direction.
The initial showrunner is usually the creator (frequently the writer of the pilot). As the years pass, the original showrunner may leave and a new one may join - this can often be a Jump the Shark or Growing the Beard moment.
Not to be confused with someone like a go-fer or someone who goes and get things for others - this person runs the show.
Creator/Showrunners:
- Danny Arnold: Barney Miller
- Donald P. Bellisario:
- Rick Berman and Brannon Braga: Star Trek: Enterprise (Seasons 1-3)
- Steven Bochco: Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue
- Stephen J Cannell:The Rockford Files, The A-Team, The Greatest American Hero (and most of his other series, in fact)
- David Chase: The Sopranos.
- Marc Cherry: Desperate Housewives
- David X. Cohen: Futurama, with co-creator Matt Groening.
- David Crane and Marta Kauffman: Friends
- Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld: Seinfeld (David left after season 7)
- Tina Fey : 30 Rock. Also plays a showrunner on the show.
- Bryan Fuller: Pushing Daisies
- Matt Groening, James L. Brooks & Sam Simon: The Simpsons (season 1 and 2)
- Dan Harmon: Community (seasons 1-3)
- Buck Henry: Get Smart. (co-creator Mel Brooks had little involvement with the series after the pilot)
- Mitchell Hurwitz: Arrested Development
- David E. Kelly: Ally McBeal, The Practice, Boston Legal
- Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante Di Martino: Avatar The Last Airbender and its Sequel Series The Legend of Korra.
- Eric Kripke: Supernatural
- Norman Lear: All in the Family, Maude, Sanford and Son.
- Howard Leeds: Small Wonder
- Ryan Murphy: Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan (collectively known as RIB): Glee
- Shonda Rhimes: Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.
- Gene Roddenberry:
- Shawn Ryan: The Shield
- Dan Schneider (y'know, Dennis from Head of the Class): iCarly, Drake & Josh, and Victorious
- Amy Sherman-Palladino: Gilmore Girls(seasons 1-6)
- Paul Simms: NewsRadio
- David Simon: The Wire and The Corner (He also wrote the book on which Homicide: Life on the Street was based, and later joined the writing staff.)
- Aaron Sorkin: Sports Night, The West Wing (Seasons 1-4), Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Newsroom
- J. Michael Straczynski: Babylon 5
- Kurt Sutter: Sons Of Anarchy
- Jeri Taylor: Star Trek: Voyager (jointly with co-creator Michael Piller for seasons 1-2; left after season 4)
- Heidi Thomas: Call The Midwife
- Matthew Weiner: Mad Men
- Dick Wolf: Law & Order
- Joss Whedon of Mutant Enemy: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (except for season 6) and "Dollhouse"
- Bruno Heller: The Mentalist, Rome.
- Vince Gilligan: Breaking Bad.
- Jeff Marsh and Dan Povenmire: Phineas and Ferb.
Showrunnners Who Took Over Existing Shows
- Russell T Davies: Doctor Who - Series 1-4 + 2009 Specials.
- Steven Moffat: Doctor Who - Series 5 onwards.
- Al Jean & Mike Reiss: The Simpsons - Seasons 3 & 4
- David Mirkin: Seasons 5 & 6
- Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein: Seasons 7 & 8.
- Mike Scully: Seasons 9 through 12.
- Al Jean: Season 13 to present.
- Journeyman producer Fred Freiberger became showrunner for the third season (often referred to as the turd season) of Star Trek: The Original Series, and became the scapegoat for all its problems.
- Ira Steven Behr took over Star Trek: Deep Space Nine from Season 3 onwards, leading to much facial hair growth.
- Maurice Hurley became showrunner in the second seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Baywatch Nights. His work on the former helped the show move towards fully Growing the Beard, but his efforts on the latter proved that no matter how badly a show starts out, it can still Jump the Shark spectacularly.
- Michael Piller became the showrunner for the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and held the role for the rest of its run. He also acted as showrunner for the first two seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and then joint showrunner (with Jeri Taylor) of the first two seasons of Star Trek: Voyager.
- Brannon Braga became the showrunner of Star Trek: Voyager for seasons 5-6, departing in season 7 to develop Star Trek: Enterprise. Like Freiberger before him, he became a major scapegoat, and is often blamed for all of the problems with the show's creative direction throughout its entire run.
- Kenneth Biller became the final showrunner for Star Trek: Voyager in season 7.
- Manny Coto took over primary showrunning duties from Rick Berman and Brannon Braga in the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise, replacing Braga as executive producer. Although season 4 was generally considered the best one, it was too late to save the show from cancellation.
- Writer/Actor Paul Lieberstein, for seasons 5-7 of The Office.
- Writer/executive producer Sara Gamble is taking over as showrunner for Supernatural as of Season 6.
- Neal Baer became showrunner of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for season 2, replacing original showrunner Robert Palm, and has remained in that position for eleven seasons, the longest tenure in franchise history. He will be moving on at the end of season 12.
- Rene Balcer assumed the role of showrunner for the original Law & Order twice: once in the late '90s, and again in the late noughties. In both cases, he left to helm a spinoff as the initial showrunner: First Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and then Law & Order: Los Angeles.
- When Marti Noxon was promoted to executive producer for Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she also became showrunner for that season, since Joss Whedon was initially preoccupied with the creation of a single episode ("Once More With Feeling"), as well as prepping Firefly.
- After David Greenwalt left Angel, Jeffrey Bell took over as showrunner for the final two seasons. *
David Simkins, best known as a writer and producer on Charmed, was brought in as showrunner for Season 4, but left due to creative differences after four episodes and was entirely uncredited; Bell replaced him and remained for the duration of the show.
Shows Where the First Showrunner Was Not the Creator
- LOST is a hybrid as far as the creator/showrunner classification is concerned. Created/showrun by J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof (Jeffrey Lieber, who shares "created by" credit, had nothing to do with the show after writing the original pilot script) and run since early on by Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.
- Doctor Who, which has only had a 'showrunner' position since the 2005 revival. Created primarily by Sydney Newman, Verity Lambert, Donald Wilson and C. E. Webber. The original series may be said to have divided the showrunner's duties between the producer and the script editor; sometimes the former (eg. John Nathan Turner from 1980 to the cancellation) or the latter (eg. Douglas Adams, 1979; Andrew Cartmel, 1987-89) seemed to have more of the role.
- An odd example in Wizards of Waverly Place: The show's creator, Todd J. Greenwald, remains on-staff as a writer and producer, but he is not the showrunner - that honour went to Peter Murrieta for the first three seasons. (In the fourth season, he left and Greenwald stayed on - but Greenwald still did not become the showrunner.)
- Edward Allen Bernero wasn't the creator of Criminal Minds, but was its showrunner from the pilot to the end of the sixth season.
- If a film series can count, producer David Heyman is essentially the showrunner of the Harry Potter movie franchise. Directors come and go and Heyman is often the one who selects them.
- "Showrunning" duties on Star Trek The Animated Series were divided between story editor D.C. Fontana and animation director Hal Sutherland; Gene Roddenberry, despite receiving creator credit, had no involvement with the series (though he was listed as the "Executive Consultant", in a harbinger of things to come).
- David Greenwalt ran Joss Whedon's Angel for the first three seasons, before leaving to work on Miracles.
- Tim Minear ran Joss Whedon's Firefly.
Showrunners in Fiction
Long-Running Shows That Never Changed Showrunners
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