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heading south
Mon Dieu! At hands of 'Bachelor' too! Good grief.
By Heidi Vogt
Jeb Bartlet may be the president America wishes it had, but he's not doing too well in the opinion polls that really matter: the Nielsens.
Just three weeks after winning its third consecutive Emmy for outstanding drama series, NBC's highly acclaimed "The West Wing" is losing viewers.
What's worse, at least from NBC's perspective, is that the show is losing them to ABC's never-acclaimed and widely dissed reality show, "The Bachelor."
This shocking bit of news is causing an outbreak of head-scratching.
"Everyone assumed that 'The West Wing' would continue to grow for a number of years," says Adam Buckman, TV columnist for the New York Post.
"It's the kind of show that Hollywood loves, and everyone's surprised that the ratings are off this season."
The much-anticipated two-hour season premiere garnered 18 million viewers, above last season's average of 17 million, but not touching last season's high point of 20 million.
Far more troubling for NBC, "The West Wing" saw notable slippage in the all-important 18-49 demographic from the season premiere to the second episode.
But the real shocker came last week when "The West Wing" lost first place in the 18-49 demo to ABC's dating-in-bulk reality show, "The Bachelor," according to preliminary Nielsen figures.
So what's going on?
Is "West Wing" losing its magic?
Does the script need a severe goosing?
Or, dread, are these such different times that a well-meaning president suddenly gets less respect than a lascivious, carnally motivated ego-maniacal hunk pretending to be searching for the perfect wife?
Everyone has opinions. No one really knows.
"'The West Wing'" is tricky because of its political undertones," says Buckman. "It's possible that the liberal politics of 'The West Wing' are not keeping pace with what's going on in the country.
"'The West Wing' is adhering to a mode of thinking that looks more and more like a relic of the 1990s. Now we're in the middle of the Bush administration," says Buckman. "There's not as much support as there used to be for a guy like President Bartlet."
Robert Thompson disagrees. Thompson is a professor of popular culture and director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.
He thinks its the show itself.
"I don't believe the reason that everybody would like to give: that the show isn't doing well because it's out of sync with the world," he says. "The show is not about politics, it's about these characters. It's a soap opera with the White House as the backdrop."
Thompson says the problem is that the show, while still a high-quality production, is simply getting predictable.
"Spectacularly good shows often have shorter life spans. They're intense and that intensity gets worn out. You've seen all the characters in all their permutations already. We've now been through 60-some odd episodes of Bartlet coming out and delivering his wisdom at the end of the hour. How many times can you watch him do it again?"
Now consider "The Bachelor. "Its format offers viewers new broken hearts every week and the unpredictability of real people.
Thompson warns against assuming that "The Bachelor" and "The West Wing" necessarily appeal to different audiences, as different as the shows might be, one low-brow and the other not-so-low.
"A lot of people who enjoy stimulating drama are also more than happy to watch 'Dog Eat Dog,' 'The Fifth Wheel' or 'The Bachelor' after a hard day's work."
So what's the cure for "The West Wing's" tumble in viewer esteem?
Here Buckman and Thompson are of the same mind: Vote Bartlet out of office, sack him. Get a new president. Jive up the script with new characters and new situations, recreating the unpredictability top TV dramas require.
"Have the president lose," says Buckman. "'The West Wing' can go on with a new administration. That's what the real one does."
That's also what successful, long-living TV shows do too, notes Thompson
"'Law and Order' has solved the problem of predictability by turning over the cast multiple times," says Thompson. Back in the '70s, he notes, "White Shadow," a high school show, actually graduated its students out of the show.
But Thompson notes that a revamp of the cast of "The West Wing" carries some risks. It has to work. "Of course, it could also be the biggest disaster ever."
NBC may rather choose to stick with the ever-moralizing Bartlet, hoping that the numbers don't tumble further, and that may be the smarter choice.
Says Thompson: "If NBC is in a situation where they can hold on to second place, they should be really happy."
October 15, 2002© 2002 Media Life
-Heidi Vogt is a staff writer for Media Life.
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