I think a lot of people are hung up on the Crazy Christians thing that the real world audience never saw. Sure they finally aired it on the show, but we never saw it.
Then there was Science Schmience, which was actually kind of funny, and if I remember correctly bashed religion in general and not just Christianity.
Despite people claiming that Sorkin is a Christian basher one of the main characters was a devout Christian and was not portraid as an idiot or whacko. She was intelligent, good looking, quick wit, and was a proud Christian not afraid to express her religion. Because of that the characters respected her and in some cases looked up to her.
In actuality when you got past the comedy sketches about Christians the show really does portray Christians in a better light then most television shows would. Or maybe it's because Christians are even mentioned at all on the show and people just want them to go away and never be seen at all.
Studio 60 is actually a pretty good show. Much better then say Ugly Betty or Jericho which ABC has given the whole season to. It's better then West Wing, can't say on Sports Night though cause never saw it.
The problem isn't that the audience isn't smart enough, nor is the problem Christian bashing. The problem is that as someone else pointed out there really isn't anything that feels important about the show. There is not really anything keeping viewers week by week, and no reason for non-viewers to wait till the season is over and drop a marathon stretch of DVD watching.
When you produce a TV show that is about producing a TV show, you can't expect much. Basically, it is about ho-wood portraying ho-wood. If people don't care for ho-wood in the first place, then a show like this has a snowball's chance in hell of pulling them in.
except for when she went on The 700 Club... you know that show with that "racist biggot." and she admitted that she would never do that again...