The show's quite well written, and it's one of the more realistic portrails of back stage show business. If Sorkin had been able to resist the temptation to spend half of each episode taking shots at the President that the majority of his potential audience elected, he might have been able to avoid turning them off long enough for the storyline to catch on.
Another of those "writer's shows", Boston Legal, is taking a lame turn this season, rapidly segueing from 'off the wall' to 'just plain silly'. Too bad.
bttt
The only people who care about backstage show biz are people who live in backstage show biz. It's like writing a show about interoffice politics at a stock broker.