Cancelled Too Soon: Aaron Sorkins' Sports Night

Sports Night is a programe about sports for people who dont like sports, If they do, that's a bonus. It's about an fictitious sports news show pre Sky Sports News days, on the fictitious Continental Sports Channel and ran from 1998 to 2000, over just two series.


Aaron Sorkin was the creator of Sports Night. He also created The West Wing a year later, and when he realized that it was a lot easier selling viewers a fictitious White House administration than a fictitious sports news crew, he dropped Sports Night rapidly. Few people have even heard of "Sports Night". It's a shame, though, because "Sports Night" may be the funniest show you never watched.


From the beginning, ABC had no clue of how to handle this show. First, they insisted that the producers had a laugh track, because you don't know when to laugh. Then, they started to promote it like a soap opera, because it had serious issues to deal with at times. Ultimately, the quality of the show came through. A fabulous cast provided excellent performances. Josh Charles ("A Few Good Men") Peter Krause ("Six Feet Under"), Robert Guilamme ("Benson") and Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives).

Sports Night was ahead of its time, there's no doubt about that. You get a good look at the birth of Sorkin's television writing style as the dialog here is witty and non-stop. The comedic timing of everyone on the show I don't think has been equaled since. The series was one of the first, if not the first, to use a moving camera to follow the action during a sitcom. The characters are often on the move going from one room to another interacting with other characters as they do. It really is a joy to watch it all unfold so naturally.

For me, there has never been a better Drama-dy before or since. Sports Night had an uncanny knack at making you laugh one moment and making you cry in the next. For such a short series and such a short format in half-hour shows (about 22 minutes minus commercials) the fact that the characters grab you and make you care as much as they do is a testament to the writers.

It really is a shame this show didn't get picked up after ABC cancelled it, these characters just begged for more time to let the story unfold.

Sports Night aired in the UK on ABC1 in 2006