Bartlet4America News Archive

How Could They Bump ‘West Wing’ for Two Talking Politicians?

by LISA DE MORAES
Washington Post

Here at The TV Column in our nation's capital we are incensed that an anticlimactic event like Al Gore's concession speech followed by George W. Bush's "Victory Lap 2" speech could be allowed to take precedence over NBC's broadcast of "The West Wing"—our preferred, fictional presidency.

NBC decided to preempt last night's episode after Gore's people announced he would address the nation at 9 p.m., when we should've been settling into our big crunchy chairs watching "The West Wing."

And not just any episode, but the Very Special Christmas Episode of "The West Wing." We still get chills thinking about last year's Very Special Christmas Episode, in which a haunted Toby learned more about a forgotten Korean War hero who died alone on a cold D.C. street while wearing a coat that Toby once donated to charity.

Last night, we were supposed to see adorable, sad-eyed Josh being ordered by President Bartlet to consult a doctor who specializes in analyzing trauma victims. Josh hasn't yet fully recovered from his life-threatening injuries in the presidential assassination attempt of last May's action-packed season finale.

But we didn't get to see that. Instead, we got the wrapping up of the Real Presidential Election. After five weeks, we're pretty tired of the Real Presidential Election. And we got to see NBC News On-Air Talent navel-gazing about what Gore and Bush had just said. NBC capped the whole sorry night with a rerun of "Will & Grace."

Was this fair? Did NBC have to decide to carry more political coverage last night than ABC or CBS? Why did it have to choose now to have a crisis of conscience over its decision not to air the first presidential debate live in favor of baseball and not to interrupt its telecast of "Titanic" in order to carry live the Florida election vote certification and Dubya's "Victory Lap 1" speech?

You'd hardly notice last night's schedule change on CBS, since all it did was sub Gore and Bush for "Odd Couple II." Between the two speeches, CBS entertained viewers with a rerun of "Everybody Loves Raymond."

ABC followed Gore with "Drew Carey," followed by Bush, followed by "Spin City," which makes for lousy TV but a good headline: Gore Drew Bush Spin.

Only Fox stuck with its original programming, carrying Gore's speech at 9 and then joining "The $treet" in progress, which was sure to anger nobody since this show has been canceled because no one is watching.

It promised to be a good night, however, for WB; the cliffhanger "midseason" finale of "Felicity" was sure to draw a bigger number than it would have otherwise, as viewers heartily sick of Gore and Bush looked for something, anything, else to watch. WB had always planned that "Felicity" would have the Wednesday 9 p.m. time slot for the start of the season and that "Jack & Jill" would move in in January.

NBC did throw us a bone—a very small bone. It preempted "Ed" at 8 to show a rerun of "The West Wing." And it promises to run the Very Special Christmas Episode of "The West Wing" next Wednesday.