Writer: Aaron Sorkin, Director: Alex Graves
Seems the ratings ploy worked. Season finale was third for the week whereas "The West Wing" was 11th for the season. So Simon died for the money --- robber killed him when he tried to prevent the theft of money from the store, and Sorkin killed him for the extra money the show would get for showing up so well in sweeps!
As Executive Producer, it is important for Aaron Sorkin to do the best he can to make money for his show. As writer, it is important that he make this money in a way that doesn't reduce the reputation and long term goals of the show. We think he made a short term and disastrously wrong choice here and are hoping we get no more "West Wing" season finales where characters are shot and/or die as if this show were a prime time soap instead of what it started out to be.
The following is from
Zap2it | TV News: Ratings and are official Nielsen figures
Network Primetime
Week of 05/13/02 - 05/26/02
| RANK |
PROGRAM |
NET |
DAY |
TIME |
HOUSEHOLD |
VIEWERS |
RATING/
SHARE |
AUDIENCE |
| 1 |
LAW AND ORDER |
NBC |
Wed |
10:00PM |
12.9/21.0 |
13,638,000 |
19,511,000 |
| 2 |
EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND |
CBS |
Mon |
9:00PM |
12.8/19.0 |
13,477,000 |
20,183,000 |
| 3 |
WEST WING |
NBC |
Wed |
9:00PM |
11.3/17.0 |
11,871,000 |
16,636,000 |
| See the rest of the ratings for the week of finales |
|
Top 20 Network Primetime Series by Households:
Season-To-Date 09/24/01 - 05/26/02
| RANK |
PROGRAM NAME |
NETWORK |
DAY |
TIME |
HOUSEHOLD
RATINGS/SHARE |
| 1 |
FRIENDS |
NBC |
Thu |
8:00PM |
15.0/24.0 |
| 2 |
CSI |
CBS |
Thu |
9:00PM |
14.5/22.0 |
| 2 |
CBS NFL NATL POST GUN |
CBS |
Sun |
7:15PM |
14.5/24.0 |
| 4 |
E.R. |
NBC |
Thu |
10:00PM |
14.2/23.0 |
| 5 |
EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND |
CBS |
Mon |
9:00PM |
12.8/19.0 |
| 6 |
LAW AND ORDER |
NBC |
Wed |
10:00PM |
12.6/21.0 |
| 7 |
FRIENDS 8:30PM |
NBC |
Thu |
8:31PM |
12.2/19.0 |
| 8 |
SURVIVOR: AFRICA |
CBS |
Thu |
8:00PM |
11.8/18.0 |
| 8 |
SURVIVOR: MARQUESAS |
CBS |
Thu |
8:00PM |
11.8/19.0 |
| 10 |
NFL MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL |
ABC |
Mon |
9:07PM |
11.5/19.0 |
| 11 |
WEST WING |
NBC |
Wed |
9:00PM |
11.4/18.0 |
| See the rest of the overall ratings for the season |
|
|
Third Season Finale Ratings
