This page ranks directors based on the average quality of their episodes according to Loyalists and Jumpers. All data below take into account when an episode aired and whether it was one part of a two-part episode. More detail is on the Directors Ranked page.
The Joss bonus represents how many more points an episode that this person directed would get if Joss Whedon directed it instead. High numbers suggest that Joss Whedon could have done a much better job with the episodes that the director directed. Lower numbers suggest that the director is almost as good as Joss Whedon. By definition, Joss Whedon gets a 0 on this statistic. This interpretation assumes that the director of the episode is the main cause of the episode's quality.
Rank | Loyalists | Jumpers | ||
1 | Joss Whedon | 0.00 | Joss Whedon | 0.00 |
2 | Nick Marck | 15.92 | Nick Marck | 8.50 |
3 | Michael Gershman | 17.36 | Michael Lange | 13.88 |
4 | Michael Lange | 20.74 | Michael Gershman | 16.22 |
5 | James A. Contner | 30.39 | David Grossman | 24.91 |
6 | David Grossman | 31.47 | James A. Contner | 26.36 |
7 | Other Directors | 33.59 | Other Directors | 28.87 |
8 | David Solomon | 36.80 | David Solomon | 34.79 |
9 | David Semel | 39.73 | David Semel | 34.82 |
10 | Bruce Seth Green | 42.66 | Bruce Seth Green | 36.34 |
11 | David Greenwalt | 46.55 | David Greenwalt | 43.01 |
12 | James Whitmore Jr. | 47.76 | James Whitmore Jr. | 44.60 |
Loyalists and Jumpers generally agree on who directs the best episodes. Every director has an identical or nearly identical rank on each list.
The smaller Joss Bonuses for Jumpers suggest that, in general, Loyalists prefer Joss Whedon episodes more than Jumpers do. This is especially true for "Chosen." When this is taken into account, the data above show that Loyalists also prefer David Solomon more than Jumpers do, and Jumpers prefer Nick Marck more than Loyalists do.
Overall, the writer of a particular episode explains 14.2% of episode quality for Loyalists and 12.7% for Jumpers.