"The West Wing" gets canceled

NBC has officially given the ax to “The West Wing,” and with notice of the cancellation comes a veritable end to an era of peculiar television. The show will finish out its seventh season, according to a Reuters report, and then live vicariously through another DVD release and cable reruns (which Bravo already shows on a seemingly continuous basis).

At the end of the news report, though, there is an interesting boilerplate about the NBC drama's new competition:

"The West Wing" is not the only political drama beset by ratings woes this season. ABC's "Commander in Chief," starring Geena Davis as the first female U.S. president, has seen a steady decline in its viewership since premiering to strong numbers in September.

What is most interesting here is that the public's taste for for such programming seems to be fading rapidly. The critically-acclaimed HBO series “K Street” never made it off the ground just a couple of years ago and nearly a decade has elapsed since the last duo of successful Oval Office films, “The American President” and “Nixon.” (“Thirteen Days,” a remarkable movie released in 2000, is the only notable entry since and it posted a paltry $35 million box office to an $80 million budget, according to the IMDB.)

Now, aside from having once transformed my one bedroom apartment into a “Nielson Household,” I am not much of a television expert. But the trend here seems to be more based in Washington, DC than Los Angeles.

During the presidency of Bill Clinton, the Oval Office seemed hardly sacred. It was where interns thrived, lies were told and the federal government was shut down at a whim. Now that George Bush is residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it would seem that – for better or worse, depending on your slant – the White House has become a more serious place. A war is being fought, Americans have been attacked at home and the presidency seems perhaps a tougher institution at which to throw punch lines.

Then again, maybe people just got tired of Martin Sheen's liberal preaching.