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March 28, 2005
'West Wing' will be back, but lead role is wide open
by Rick Kushman
Sacramento Bee
The race is on. NBC has announced that "The West Wing" (along with "Las Vegas,"Crossing Jordan" and "Joey") will be back next season. Who will be running the country is another question entirely.
None of those renewals are a surprise. But that brings up a larger question now: Who's going to be the next fake president?
"The West Wing" will finish its season on April 6. Don't expect to get a new president by then, but we'll probably know the Democratic nominee.
"The West Wing" might be one of the all-time oddest shows on network TV. It was stellar, then awful, now pretty good again. Next it faces a major revamp of its cast.
The contenders to succeed Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) as president -- whom the writers have turned into something of a doddering lame duck -- are Republican Arnold Vinick (played by Alan Alda) and Democrats Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Vice President Bob Russell (Gary Cole). The current cast has been divvied up among the candidates, and it would take some astounding plot gymnastics to keep the whole crew together under a new president.
In January, "West Wing" executive producer John Wells said that he had not decided who would win and was waiting to assess the chemistry of the reshuffled cast.
My money's on Santos. First off, if you were NBC and you want younger viewers, which star would you keep? And second, NBC keeps scheduling conference calls for reporters to talk with Smits.
By the way, on April 13, NBC fills the Wednesday slot for six weeks with a new series called "Revelations." It stars Bill Pullman and presents an end-of-the-world, final-battle-between-God-and-Satan story. If the ratings are good, expect Pullman to help forestall the Apocalypse, at least long enough so the series can be renewed for next season.
Posted by Jo at March 28, 2005 09:17 AM