The Debate (The West Wing)

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For the fourth season West Wing debate episode between Josiah Bartlet and Robert Ritchie, see Game On (The West Wing).
"The Debate"
Lawrence O'Donnell Jr.
Production code2T6207
Original air dateNovember 6, 2005 (2005-11-06)
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"The Debate" is the seventh episode of the seventh season of American serial political drama

Matt Santos and Arnold Vinick, respectively, in their roles as candidates for president of the United States
.

Synopsis

The episode begins by focusing on both presidential candidates in the final minutes before the

health care, public education, immigration, energy, and ideology. During the health care portion of the debate, both Santos and Vinick leave their podium while attempting to make bold statements, causing an offscreen technician to have to give both handheld microphones. While discussing energy, Vinick proposed nuclear power as a way to reduce reliance on oil from outside sources. Santos objected to nuclear power, arguing that it is dangerous, to which Vinick replied that "nuclear power is completely safe". In a later episode, concerning a potential meltdown of a nuclear reactor in Vinick's home state of California
, Vinick's statement was clipped and re-aired repeatedly.

Cast

Production

The episode was partially scripted and partially improvised, and was shot live twice and formatted as if it were a real

Empire that the episode was shot as if it were a play, with both Smits and Alda being given a "crash course" in debating that allowed them to improvise.[2][3]

Alan Alda commented that his connection to the character allowed him to improvise, and said that he really "wanted to defeat Jimmy—I mean Jimmy as the character". When told of Alda's comment, Jimmy Smits replied "No, he wants to win".[2]

Lawrence O'Donnell, an executive producer of the show, commented that the episode was "my wish-fulfillment debate".[2] Despite the risky nature of a live performance, O'Donnell commented that he was not worried, telling the Associated Press that it would be just as fun to watch if things went wrong, akin to a "train wreck".[2]

Reaction and impact

Around 9.6 million viewers saw the episode, a significant uptick from the average of 8.2 million for the seventh season that far.[1][4] The Associated Press referred to the episode as both "startlingly realistic" and "straight out of fantasyland", wondering why real-life politicians would not emulate the open-debate format.[1] The Plain Dealer thought that the episode was the "best fictional debate of our time" in a list of eight fictional film and television debates.[5]

In a post-debate poll conducted by

Zogby International of 1,208 viewers, respondents thought that Santos won the debate, by 54 to 38 percent. However, in a pre-debate poll, 59 percent of viewers favored Santos, as opposed to 29 percent who thought Vinick was the better candidate. Santos beat Vinick by only three points on the question of who was more presidential, 42 to 39. Of respondents, 78 percent thought the debate moderator, Forrest Sawyer, did an "excellent" or "good" job. While respondents felt that the debate was unrealistic, they also preferred it to a real-life debate.[4]

In 2021, the

New Jersey Globe announced that two candidates for the New Jersey Senate in the 16th legislative district, Republican Michael Pappas and Democrat Andrew Zwicker, would participate in an open debate inspired by "The Debate". The debate was set up to downsize the role of the moderator significantly, where they would only ask the first question and let both candidates continue the conversation for the remaining hour.[6]

References

  1. ^
    Washington Post. Associated Press
    . Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d Elber, Lynn (November 5, 2005). "Live debate on "The West Wing" may shame the real thing". The Seattle Times. Associated Press. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  3. ^ "Part 4: The Midterms". Empire. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Viewers give Santos the victory in debate, barely". Today. November 7, 2005. Retrieved October 25, 2001.
  5. ^ Smith, Troy L. (September 30, 2020). "8 fictional TV and movie debates that put Biden-Trump to shame". The Plain Dealer. Cleveland, Ohio. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  6. New Jersey Globe
    . Retrieved October 25, 2021.

External links

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