‘The West Wing’ Mysteriously Drops From Max, But Will Return Wednesday

The Bartlet administration has briefly gone missing from Max. But don’t worry; it’ll be back.

The West Wing was pulled from the streaming service after viewership hit a significant lull over the holidays. All seven seasons were available on the platform — that is, until recently.

Oliver Darcy noted in his Status newsletter that the drama’s removal was part of a cost-cutting move following an evaluation of its performance. No one in leadership was initially flagged that it was targeted for elimination from the platform.

The decision was made Tuesday, however, that such an iconic series should not be pulled from HBO’s sister streamer so The West Wing will return Wednesday. Hail to the chief!

The Aaron Sorkin drama recently celebrated its 25th anniversary that culminated with some of the stars participating in a small September ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House. In August, stars Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack also released the book What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing.

At an event to celebrate the publication of the book, Sorkin admitted that his version of The West Wing can still work today, though it would be a challenge to depict that reasonable Republicans work on Capitol Hill.

“I don’t want to get a rumble started or anything like that,” Sorkin told the crowd at the Skirball Center event on Aug. 13. “This is simply what would be different. I’m afraid to say that right now, and maybe things will different a year from now or two years from now. But right now, it would be implausible that the opposition party, that the Republican Party, was reasonable. People would watch that and it would be unfamiliar to them as the country they live in. On the show, while the Republicans were the opposition, they were reasonable.”

Sorkin added that when it comes to typical depictions of politicians in pop culture, “leaders are either portrayed as Machiavellian or as dolts, right? It’s either House of Cards or Veep. The idea behind The West Wing was, they were as competent and dedicated as the doctors and nurses on hospital shows, the cops on cop shows and the lawyers on legal dramas. The result was something that was idealistic and aspirational.”