A slave to ratings

Comedy Central has picked up the television show "Sports Night," and I am more excited than Donnie and Marie on Jolt cola.

After being canceled by ABC last May, many cable networks, including HBO and Showtime, showed interest in producing new episodes of the show but to no avail. Aaron Sorkin, the show's creator and writer, decided against new episodes and instead focused his time on his other show, "The West Wing."

Comedy Central will only show reruns of the show's 45 episodes, but that is certainly better than the entertainment void that ABC calls its schedule - including, of course, "The Geena Davis Show." My only hope is that Susan Sarandon will make a guest appearance and that the two will drive off a cliff together.

While "Sports Night" maintained a loyal fan following and critics' praise, it was not getting the viewership that ABC would have liked, so the network canned it. It did not matter to ABC that it was a fresh and original approach to the sitcom genre, or that it was one of the few spots of good television in the big pile of crap that is network TV. All that mattered was the ratings.