• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, November 10, 2006

Aaron Sorkin, take note: This season's TV election ratings are up 20% versus that of 2002. It must be time for a political TV show. How about one about the back-office drama of a U.S. president?

Instead of a mostly honorable, somewhat popular U.S. president, how about one about a mostly struggling, unpopular government official? That's probably not in the cards. But these ratings suggest a political drama should be forthcoming.

What works this year doesn't seem to go in that direction. Instead, we are left to root for underdogs--a plain-looking assistant at a fashion magazine in "Ugly Betty"; a bunch of social misfits who appear to have supernatural powers in "Heroes"; or an earnest bunch of Midwest townspeople figuring out how to live in the post-nuclear world in "Jericho."

It's hard to determine who should be the next underdog. We already had the Boston Red Sox overcoming curses. Is President Bush the new underdog--now that he's fired his Secretary of Defense the day after the Democrats took back power in the Congress? (By the way--what was so wrong in firing Rumsfeld on Monday, when most executives typically get the axe?)

A 20% hike in the election coverage put ABC as the top dog of the evening. What did the trick? It wasn't typical TV programming theory. Don't tell me ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" was the perfect lead-in. This was pure appointment television for the American public.

One has to believe there is renewed interest in politics and news. Even perennial third place MSNBC grabbed triple-digit gains compared with 2002! Look for other winners down the road--perhaps the underdog young-skewing cable news channel, Current.

In the fictional world, maybe Sorkin will shift "Studio 60" to a more decidedly political bent now that the network has ordered up new episodes that will take the show through the rest of this season. Sorkin's already laid the groundwork with the Religious Right themes, and other political topics.

Perhaps we can expect Fox to riff on what has worked before in this world, offering, at next May's upfront presentation, a John Goodman-as-president satire with a Coen Brothers spin to it. Call the show "The Right Wing."