May 02, 2003
'West Wing' Creator Aaron Sorkin Quits Ailing Series
By Lisa de Moraes
The Washington Post
Friday, May 2, 2003; Page C01
Aaron Sorkin is out at "The West Wing," the Emmy-winning White House drama series he created and executive-produced.
Sorkin yesterday told executives at NBC and Warner Bros. Television, where the show is produced, that he will leave at the end of this season, the show's fourth.
Tommy Schlamme, the show's principal director and co-executive producer, also informed the suits of his intention to bow out at season's end.
Sorkin had been telling people late last year that this season would likely be his last because he felt the show had "jumped the shark" -- an industry expression for run its course -- one source told The TV Column yesterday afternoon.
The show that was once weekly water-cooler talk has suffered enormous ratings erosion this season and been completely overshadowed by the real White House.
"The show veered so far away from reality," one Hollywood TV agent commented yesterday. "In the Clinton years the show mirrored reality; now it's a whole other alternative universe."
He was referring to story lines about fictitious countries with names like Qumar and Kundu that Sorkin has been incorporating to hammer home his liberal positions and contrast them with those of the Bush administration.
The studio and the network yesterday afternoon countered the departures by announcing that John Wells, the show's other executive producer, will step in for Sorkin.
John Wells Productions produces "The West Wing" with Warner Bros. TV. (Wells also produces NBC's "ER" and "Third Watch" and has a long-term deal at Warner Bros.)
"Sadly, we always knew this day would come and have been assembling a talented group of writers, directors and producers to assist in this transition," Wells said in a statement.
According to TV folks in Hollywood, rumors had been flying for weeks that something was afoot on the drama series, including the never-ending reports of tension between Sorkin and Warner Bros. over his continued late delivery of scripts, causing budget overruns and production delays. NBC execs complained that he wouldn't take the network's "notes" on episodes.
"He's always been a gigantic pain," one industry exec told The TV Column. "But they were okay with him so long as the ratings stayed up."
For public consumption, the studio and NBC raved about the two men:
"Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme have done an extraordinary job in their four years at the helm of 'The West Wing,' " said NBC entertainment chief Jeff Zucker and Warner Bros. Television President Peter Roth.
"Aaron's brilliant writing job and Tommy's gifted direction and leadership have been the cornerstones of 'The West Wing's' remarkable critical and ratings success," their statement said.
"The West Wing" last September won its third consecutive best-drama Emmy; Sorkin has an Emmy for writing on the series, and Schlamme has two for directing.
This season, for the first time in the show's run, the ratings are heading down at a fast clip. Last season "The West Wing" was a top 10 show; this season it's down to No. 23.
At this point last season, the show was averaging more than 17 million viewers each week; this season it's down 22 percent, to 13.5 million viewers.
More important to NBC, the show had fumbled nearly 30 percent of its 18-to-49-year-old audience, the demographic that advertisers covet and that NBC sells.
Those young viewers have been siphoned off by ABC's reality series "The Bachelor." After ABC moved "The Bachelor" from Monday to Wednesday opposite "The West Wing" last October, the cheesy dating show had beaten "West Wing" among 18-to 49-year-olds by its second broadcast; it continued to do so consistently. By early November, original episodes of "The Bachelor" were also beating original "West Wing" episodes among viewers overall. "The Bachelorette," in which Trista Rehn "dated" her way through 25 bachelors, trounced "The West Wing" after that.
Yes, another tart took down a president.
NBC announced in January that it had picked up the series, which stars Martin Sheen as President Josiah Bartlet, for two additional seasons, with an option for a third.
For four seasons, Sorkin has penned nearly every script on the critically acclaimed drama.
"The fact that he managed to do it this far is amazing, and he should be given credit for that," one Hollywood insider said.
"He just couldn't keep doing it; it was hurting the show and himself. This way it's all nice and amicable," the source added.
"This has been the experience of any writer's dreams," Sorkin said in a statement. "I had the best job in show business for four years and I'll never forget that."
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
