October 07, 2005
NBC plans live debate episode on 'West Wing'
By Steve Gorman
Reuters
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hoping to boost interest in a celebrated television series that has slipped in the ratings, NBC will air a rare live episode of "The West Wing" featuring a debate between the show's two nominees for president.
Former "NYPD Blue" star Jimmy Smits, who plays Democratic candidate Matt Santos, will square off against "M*A*S*H" veteran Alan Alda, the Republican contender Arnold Vinick, in the special "West Wing" telecast scheduled for November 6, NBC said on Thursday.
The episode will be produced live twice in the same night, once for the Eastern and Central time zones, and again for the Mountain and Pacific regions.
The Emmy-winning "West Wing" began its seventh season last month with a story line pitting former Texas congressman Santos against California Senator Vinick in an election battle to succeed the current U.S. president, played by Martin Sheen.
But producers have kept viewers guessing as to how the campaign will play out, leaving open the possibility that Sheen's character, liberal Democrat Josiah "Jed" Bartlet, might be replaced by a Republican administration.
Some observers have noted that recent episodes has tended to focus more on the Santos campaign, which is being run by Bartlet loyalist Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford), than on Vinick's camp.
At this point, it remains to be seen how far into the current season the climactic fictional election will take place and whether the series will even return next fall.
The latter question hinges in large part on whether "West Wing" can overcome its current slump in the Nielsen ratings.
The first two episodes of the new season posted all-time ratings low for the series, with just 7.6 million viewers tuning in to see the show on its new Sunday 8 p.m. berth.
That's well below the show's 11 million-viewer average from last season, when it was airing on Wednesdays at the more heavily watched hour of 9 o'clock.
NBC's new occupants of the show's old time slot, Pentagon-based drama "E-Ring" and "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart," have not done much better than "West Wing" this year. But they also are facing much stiffer competition from ABC's smash hit castaway thriller "Lost," which was moved from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays this year.
Live drama, a staple of early television in the 1950s, is relatively rare nowadays. NBC launched its fourth season of the hospital series "ER in 1997 with a live performance. The live-premiere treatment also was given to the hit comedy "Will & Grace" this season.
Reuters/VNU
