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January 24, 2005
'Idol,' 'Model' aside, who'll be president?
by Ellen Gray
Philadelphia Daily News
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - While Fox launches its search for yet another "American Idol" and UPN for "America's Next Top Model," producer John Wells is on the lookout for the next president of the United States.
Wells' chief executive won't be chosen in Ohio or Florida but in the offices of NBC's "The West Wing," and whether he's a Democrat or a Republican, you can be pretty sure he'll be an actor. In the running for the role that Martin Sheen is expected to vacate this time next year are Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda, whose on-air auditions began earlier this season, and though it's difficult to recall another scripted series that essentially held a competition to find a new lead, Smits, for one, doesn't think of it that way.
"I'm just having a great time working with a really wonderful ensemble, ensemble in the truest sense of the word," said the "NYPD Blue" veteran, who plays a Democrat from Texas who's so far running for president more to get some of his ideas on the national agenda than with any real expectation of winning. "We had a scene [filmed] last week, our first scene together, and it was just two actors riffing off each other."
He and Alda, who plays a California Republican, sounded a bit more like politicians than actors, in fact, with Alda telling reporters he'll "do as many episodes as it takes to accomplish our goals" (both are signed for next season, while negotiations continue with Sheen, who joked that he'd prefer "another term").
No one yet knows for sure whether "The West Wing," averaging 11.9 million viewers and boasting television's most upscale audience, will be back for the end of the Bartlet administration, but Wells, who last season replaced series creator Aaron Sorkin as show-runner, is charging ahead with his own campaign to keep the show going, with an eye toward a January 2006 inauguration.
Just don't expect a say in who'll be taking the oath then. Although Wells insists he hasn't decided which of his candidates will be president - whatever you think about the show's politics, Wells said "oftentimes the Republican point of view sounds very, very compelling, particularly coming out of Alda's mouth" - the show's plotted too far ahead to allow for interactivity, he said.
"What we're really hoping is that the average viewer isn't going to be certain who they want to vote for," Wells said.
"What we're trying to set up is where the entire fall, you're trying to figure out who you'd vote for if you had a chance to do it," he said.
Posted by Jo at January 24, 2005 07:35 PM