Yesterday’s Losers:
...Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC)
First at 10 p.m., of course, was CBS’ rock-solid CSI: Miami at a 12.6/19 in the overnights, 17.49 million viewers and a 6.0/15 among adults 18-49. A distant second was NBC’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (Overnights: 6.3/10; Viewers: 7.70 million; A18-49: 3.1/ 8), followed by ABC drama What About Brian (Overnights: 4.1/ 6; Viewers: 6.02 million; A18-49: 2.6/ 7). Both Studio 60 and What About Brian declined by double-digit percentages from their lead-ins, hence the loser’s listings.
Later in a "Freshman series update" he describe Studio 60 as "on the fence."
What's weird is critics still seem to want Sorkin to tie up Matt & Harriet quickly. Wheras I, as I said last week, think they make a more interesting couple than most on TV and want him to take his time, always assuming he has any.
And I really wish he'd resist the tempation to tie up some of his other plots so quickly and neatly. Last night's episode was a great example.
Matt and Simon, a black member of the cast of the show within the show, go to a comedy club to see a black comedian who has been touted to them. Simon has been chiding Matt about the lack of black writers, and thus a black eye and voice in humor, on his writing staff.
Unfortunately, the comic they are there to see turns out to be using the worst kinds of stereotpes for his jokes about the-differences between white people and black people. And getting big laughs.
It was an effective scene, well-played by Matthew Perry and D.L. Hughley.
Later over a drink, Simon talks about growing up in South Central LA and how he now wants to help people as he himself was helped to get out of there. Again, an effective scene with much promise for the future. Matt could, for example, have gone back to work and initiated a minority writer training program with the guild.
But instead, suddenly they hear another black comedian onstage who's eating it-but his material shows original thought. They go backstage and hire the man-who happens to be from South Central near where Simon grew up-immidiately.
What an unbelivable (and unnecessary)coincidence.
Or maybe, just maybe, it's that last night of all nights I wasn't in a frame of mind to see a Lana Turner story enacted right in front of me. Yes, if you're just in the right place at the right time a magic wand will touch you and give you a job in television where you can make more money in a week than your parents made in a year.
Yes, it's just that easy.
Don't fucking lie to me, Sorkin.
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