In the aftermath of his public tirade, acclaimed Atlantis Cable News anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) returns to his job to find that most of his staff are leaving and his new executive producer is his ex-girlfriend, MacKenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer) and when some breaking news about a potentially disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico hits the network, the staff faces a new challenge.
Entertainment Weekly reported in April 2009 that Sorkin, while still working on the screenplay for The Social Network, was contemplating a new TV drama about the behind-the-scenes events at a cable news program.
The series opens with news anchor Will McAvoy participating in a panel at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and giving a controversial speech on America's recent decline as a nation, shocking the audience.
He then goes on vacation for two weeks to let the dust settle, and comes back to work only to find that his executive producer and most of his team are leaving him for another news anchor.
A news alert comes in about an explosion off the Gulf of Mexico, but Don Keefer, the original executive producer, doesn't find it to be worth pursuing.
Entertainment Weekly reported in April 2009 that Sorkin, while still working on the screenplay for The Social Network, was contemplating a new TV drama about the behind-the-scenes events at a cable news program.
[2] Sorkin was the series creator of Sports Night and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, both shows depicting the off-camera happenings of fictional television programs.
"[1] Sorkin decided that rather than have his characters react to fictional news events as on his earlier series, The Newsroom would be set in the recent past and track real-world stories largely as they unfolded, in order to give a greater sense of realism.
[7] By June, Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, Sam Waterston, Olivia Munn, and Dev Patel were cast, while Greg Mottola had signed on to direct the pilot.
[25][26] New York magazine reported that Sorkin had planned for MSNBC host Chris Matthews and Andrew Breitbart to appear in a roundtable debate scene in the pilot.
However, the idea was shot down by MSNBC purportedly because the network was displeased with the corporate culture portrayal of cable news and skewering of left-leaning media in the show's script.
"[35] Time's James Poniewozik criticized the show for being "smug" and "intellectually self-serving," with "Aaron Sorkin writing one argument after another for himself to win.