Aaron Sorkin has received mixed reviews for his latest series The Newsroom. So it may not come as much of a surprise to learn that the writing team has been given a mass overhaul for season two. According to The Daily, yesterday (July 19, 2012), Sorkin has kicked out most of the writers for the cable drama and will be drafting in a fresh set of scribes for the second season of the series. A source told The Daily "They're not coming back, except for Sorkin's ex-girlfriend [Corinne Kinsbury]."
It's not unusual for powerful show creators to replace their writing teams from season to season, though. Mad Men's Matthew Weiner has been known to replace writers every season and sometimes, writer will be shown the door right after they've handed in an episode. A representative for HBO told The Daily "Every year each show reassesses the needs of its writing staffs. This process is nothing out of the ordinary." Still, in the case of Sorkin's Newsroom, the near-total overhaul has hit the headlines. The series was expected to be another blanket success for Sorkin, who already has such acclaimed series as The West Wing under his belt but as the reviews started to come in, it seemed that the Midas touch had not taken effect on The Newsroom's scripts (three of which were credited solely to Sorkin, let's not forget).
Hbo renewed the contract for The Newsroom back at the start of July. Presumably, the viewer ratings, which saw the series bowing at 2.1 million on June 24, 2012, behind Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones, carried more weight than the negative reviews that the series had attracted.