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Aaron Sorkin culls writing team for The Newsroom

On the same day that it has been confirmed for Australian television, HBO's The Newsroom has just culled most of its writers

On the same day that it has been confirmed for Australian television, HBO’s The Newsroom has just culled most of its writers.

US media reports creator Aaron Sorkin is replacing about half of its writing staff. This follows disappointing reviews by critics, despite audience enthusiasm for the show.

One source close to the show tells The Hollywood Reporter that all writing staff except for ex-girlfriend Corinne Kinsbury have been let go.

But sources tell E! News that there are more writers staying on staff than just Kinsbury.

“Every year each show reassesses the needs of its writing staffs. This process is nothing out of the ordinary,” HBO said in a statement.

Sorkin also responded to criticism of the show telling CNN: “I like writing about heroes that don’t wear capes or disguises; it’s aspirational,” he said. “You feel like, ‘Gee, it looks like the real world and feels like the real world – why can’t that be the real world?’ … The show is meant to be a fantasy set against very real and oftentimes very serious events.”

The series premiered to 2.1 million viewers, behind only Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones among HBO’s drama launches since 2008.

It begins on SoHo on August 20th.

6 Responses

  1. Having now watched the first two episodes there are definitely some problems with the writing. The email thing in the 2nd episode was extremely clumsily done and you could see it all happening miles in advance.

    The whole idea is a bit silly. There already is a good quality news service on PBS that is watched by 2.7m viewers a night and 8m separate viewers over a week. But it would never work on commercial media. And them trying to criticise the News Hour charter with an example that was really about subediting and marketing the news and not reporting was really stupid.

    There are also problems with the supporting actors not being capable of delivering the material well and with the direction.

    Still when there are scenes that do work they are a lot of fun.

  2. Just saw the pilot last night, I liked it. Love the pace and the feeling.

    FYI also lover Studio 60, it had some fantastic writing, Matthew Perry was great, just hope his new show lasts longer.

  3. It’s an amazing show when they concentrate on simply the news side of things. The relationship drama is what’s letting the show down. But I guess every show these days needs a romantic angle….

  4. This at least indicates they’re trying to fix The Newsroom, but I wonder whether its fixable. On the strength of the first episode, its a misguided concept, populated by unlikeable characters, mostly spouting nonsense about news journalism. I hope the new writers at least feed Sorkin some more reliable research about the way TV news and current affairs shows are actually made. So far it’s been embarrassing.

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