Saunders: Scripts no help for ailing 'Studio 60'

Saturday, November 4, 2006

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip has easily won honors as the most widely publicized new network series on the fall schedule. Of course, that still might not save the highly anticipated NBC series from being canceled. How could this happen? It started so well. Consider:

• It was created by Aaron Sorkin, who some believe walks on water thanks to a pair of previous critical hits: NBC's The West Wing and ABC's Sports Night.

• TV critics around the country (including me) hailed Studio 60, about behind-the-scenes life of a Saturday Night Live-type show, as the best new fall series after viewing its first hour. (Recall Judd Hirsch's marvelous rant against television, so reminiscent of Paddy Chayefsky in Network?)

• A survey by Media Life, an online broadcasting magazine, reported Studio 60 was the most anticipated new series of national media buyers, the guys responsible for big bucks TV commercials.

• Stars Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford and Amanda Peet seemingly were on the cover of every magazine except Soybean Digest.

• The series premiered Sept. 18, luring more than 13.1 million viewers to rank as the 22nd most watched network series of the week.

Then the bottom dropped out.

Audience ratings have since tumbled weekly, with the most-recently aired episode on Oct. 23 drawing only 7.7 million viewers to sink to 60th in the ratings.

Critics now have become cranky, pointing out that Sorkin's fast-paced dialogue often has been difficult to hear, while story lines were too "inside baseball." Do viewers really care about the results of network focus groups and audience previews?

As the ratings tumbled, NBC announced it had commissioned three more scripts, indicating the network had faith in the show. Fox News, on its Web site, then shouted "Studio 60 cancellation imminent."

Next came Media Post, another online media site, saying: "Studio 60 stays on board."

Numerous nay-sayers really jumped on the pessimistic bandwagon after noting the success of Friday Night Lights, another low-rated NBC freshman series, when it aired last Monday in Studio 60's 9 p.m. time period. Lights drew 8.3 million viewers, about a million more than Studio 60 had the previous week.

Ah, another sign of an impending cancellation, according to a half-dozen Web sites.

On Thursday, NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said he hoped Studio 60, along with the comedy 30 Rock, (a major disaster in the ratings) and Friday Night Lights could be kept in the schedule, citing their creative value.

Meanwhile, Sorkin and his crew are dealing with an unexpected off-camera event - the pregnancy of Peet, who portrays Jordan McDeere, the idealistic president of the fictional network that airs Studio 60.

If the series remains on-air, Sorkin will have to find a father for McDeere's baby. Any candidates? How about producer Danny Trip (Whitfield)? He and Jordan seem to have been close pals in several scripts before Peet's announcement (She's five months pregnant).

NBC faces a crossroads. Even with sinking ratings, the series still draws blue-chip advertisers and high-income viewers who still revere Sorkin for The West Wing. But Studio 60 comes with an expensive weekly production price tag of more than $2.5 million a week, one of the highest of all network shows.

Prediction: NBC will keep the series, but eventually move it away from Monday night, where it gets clobbered by CBS' CSI: Miami (17.5 million viewers weekly). The network will realign its schedule in January after the NFL Sunday night football game leaves the air.

I understand why viewers have backed away in recent weeks. Despite a terrific cast, Sorkin's scripts have been too self-indulgent, concentrating on the nuts-and-bolts of the TV business. Entertaining stories about the personalities has been secondary.

The Oct. 23 installment was the best hour since the premiere, focusing on compelling individual situations. Perry, as the talented head writer, and D.L. Hughley, Studio 60's big star, finally got over their racial barrier. The underused Timothy Busfield, who plays the intrepid director, found an emotional connection with an old, disoriented former comedy writer (Eli Wallach). And Nathan Corddry, playing a rising young sketch comedian, tried to connect with his disinterested parents during a studio tour.

Perhaps with episodes of that caliber, those connected with Studio 60, which returns Monday night, won't have to read as many potential obituary notices.

Tune in

• What: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

• When and where: 9 p.m. Monday