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October 03, 2005
TV Notes: "The West Wing,'' "Sex, Love and Secrets,'' Red Sox-Yankees and Martha Stewart
by Charlie McCollum
San Jose Mercury-News
TV notes from the weekend:
Did you happen to notice who wasn't in the opening credits of Sunday's "The West Wing''? Dule Hill (Charlie Young), Joshua Malina (Will Bailey) and, most interestingly, Janel Moloney (Donna Moss) were all missing, suggesting that they've been downgraded to recurring status. (Stockard Channing never appears in the credits unless she's in the episode as the First Lady.) And if Richard Schiff (Toby Ziegler) was right when he said he expects to be in only three episodes this season, next week could be his exit. The old Bartlet gang is definitely breaking up, even if folks like Bradley Whitford as Josh Lyman (right) are still around.
Anyway, the episode itself -- particularly that montage at the beginning to Steve Miller's "Jetliner'' -- was another example of how much "West Wing'' has separated itself from its early days and Aaron Sorkin's crackling dialogue. I'm not saying that makes it a bad show (it's still a solid drama) but the glory days are over.
Which could explain why it continues to slide in the ratings. Sunday's viewership fell to the levels of last season's "American Dreams'' -- which led to the cancellation of "Dreams.''
UPN has stopped production on "Sex, Loves and Secrets,'' its soapy Tuesday drama, before I even got a chance to tell you just how bad it is. That isn't quite outright cancellation (the networks says it will air the eight episodes it has) but it's justthisclose. My guess: UPN doesn't have anything in the pipeline to fill in for "Sex'' so it figures it might as well burn off the episodes.
The happiest people in TV this weekend: the executives at Fox who watched the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees get into the baseball playoffs (at the expense of the Cleveland Indians) with the chance the two teams could meet in the American League championship. Red Sox and Yankees equal big ratings.
And NBC is already starting to shuffle its beleaguered lineup. First move: "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart'' will swap time slots on Wednesday with "E-Ring.'' Martha will now air at 9 p.m. with "E-Ring'' taking the 8 p.m. slot. Although network suits say differently, it looks a lot like NBC is essentially writing off the viewership-impaired "Apprentice'' spinoff against "Lost'' and "Criminal Minds'' while giving the Pentagon drama a better chance to find viewers in a less-challenging time period.
Posted by Jo at October 3, 2005 06:56 PM