--- title: "Sports Night" year: 1998 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/sports-night" fi1m_score: 82 critics_score: 80 critics_reviews: 4 published: "2026-09-20T21:11:03.833310+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T21:11:16.953878+00:00" region: "IT" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Sports Night (1998) Created by Aaron Sorkin · 22m · Comedy, Drama **Fi1m score: 82** · Critics 80 (early) from 4 reviews *In a sentence:* Two anchors, one control room, and nobody has stopped talking or walking in forty-five episodes > Aaron Sorkin’s first newsroom is his best one: fast, funny and small enough to stay honest. Josh Charles and Peter Krause carry it, Robert Guillaume steadies it, and the only thing that dates it is the laughter track the first season did not need. ## Synopsis Sports Night is a late-night cable highlights show, and this is the control room that makes it. Dan Rydell (Josh Charles) and Casey McCall (Peter Krause) read the scores together; Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman) produces them, with Natalie Hurley (Sabrina Lloyd) counting down the seconds and Jeremy Goodwin (Joshua Malina) the newest face in the room. Isaac Jaffe (Robert Guillaume) runs the operation from an office upstairs and answers to the network for the ratings. Each night the job is the same: a rundown, a satellite feed, two anchors at the desk by air time, and whatever has gone wrong in the corridor on the way there. Each episode runs 22 minutes; the first of 45 aired on 22 September 1998. ## Review Before the White House there was a sports desk. *Sports Night* is Aaron Sorkin’s first television programme, and it is about the two anchors of a late-night cable highlights show and the control room that gets them on air. It ran for two seasons, 45 half-hour episodes, beginning on 22 September 1998, and it was cancelled while it was still improving. It is the best thing Sorkin has made for television, and the faults it has are the ones he has never shaken off. The premise is thin on purpose. Nobody watching cares about the show within the show; the games are invented and the scores are made up. What Sorkin wants is the control room. Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman) produces with a headset on and a hand in the air, Natalie Hurley (Sabrina Lloyd) counts down the seconds beside her, Jeremy Goodwin (Joshua Malina) arrives in the pilot as a nervous new researcher, and Isaac Jaffe (Robert Guillaume) runs the whole operation from an office upstairs. He is the only person in the building who ever sits down. Thomas Schlamme directs the pilot and sets the manner for everything after it. Peter Smokler’s camera walks backwards through corridors ahead of people who are arguing, and the argument does not pause for the walk. Janet Ashikaga cuts to the rhythm of the lines rather than the pictures, so a scene ends the moment the joke lands and not a frame later. W.G. Snuffy Walden’s music is warm guitar and a few piano chords, the sound he would carry across to [*The West Wing*](https://film.one/tv/the-west-wing) a year later. At 22 minutes an episode, the speed is a gift: the show is over before it has time to repeat itself. Josh Charles and Peter Krause are the reason to watch. Dan and Casey have been reading scores side by side for years, and Charles and Krause talk over and under each other the way people do who no longer need to look up. Charles plays Dan as the quicker and the sadder of the two; Krause gives Casey a decent man’s bafflement at his own bad temper. Huffman, in a headset for most of every episode, makes Dana’s competence funny, which is harder than making it admirable. Guillaume does almost nothing and is the centre of every scene he is in. We did not expect a half-hour comedy about a sports desk to make us put the cup down, and it did, in a scene where Isaac tells Dana, after a bad night, that she made the right call. Guillaume says it sitting down, barely above a murmur, and Ashikaga holds on Huffman while she takes it in. It is the clearest sign of what the programme is about, which is people who are good at their jobs trying to be good to each other as well. Now the faults. The first season carries a laughter track, and it is a mistake. The jokes come faster than the laughing can follow, so a line about a headset gets a chuckle that belongs to some slower show, and it is the one thing here that has aged badly. Sorkin’s habit of having characters lecture one another about ethics is already present, and by the second season the lectures are longer. Dana and Casey circle each other for more episodes than the question deserves, and the writers (Paul Redford, Kevin Falls, David Walpert and Bill Wrubel take turns with Sorkin, among others) are more at ease with the men than the women. Dana and Natalie are brilliant at work and written as fools the moment they leave the building. Set against what Sorkin made later, this is smaller and better for it. *The West Wing* has more at stake and *The Newsroom* has more to say, and both are more pleased with themselves. Here the stakes are a rundown, a satellite feed and whether Casey will smile on air, and nobody is saving the republic. Most critics who have written about it since rate it about where we do. Watch two at a time, in the evening, with the sound up so that you catch the lines and stop hearing the laughter. There are only 45 episodes, and they go quickly. *Fi1m score 82, published 20 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Sports Night worth watching?** *Sports Night* is worth watching for anyone who likes fast, small-scale comedy about people who are good at their jobs, and we scored it 82. Josh Charles and Peter Krause carry it, Robert Guillaume steadies it, and the whole run is 45 half-hour episodes. The first season's laughter track is the one thing that has aged badly. **How long is Sports Night, and what is it rated?** *Sports Night* has episodes of about 22m. It is a comedy and drama series. **Where can I watch Sports Night in Italy?** *Sports Night* is not on any streaming or rental service in Italy at the moment. It is available in 2 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How does Sports Night compare to Broadcast News?** *Sports Night* is the smaller and quicker of the two, a television series about a sports desk where *Broadcast News* is a feature-length romance about network news. Sorkin learned the newsroom romance from James L. Brooks, and the film is the more perceptive about its people, though it forgives them too readily. The series is funnier line for line and better at the work itself. ### Reviews we read (4) - **Variety**, Ray Richmond (70/100, inferred): The series is the most entertaining new comedy of the fall, an edgy satire that feels fresh and unlike other network offerings thanks to its snappy scripts and energy. It is superbly cast and benefits from Thomas Schlamme’s quick-cut direction that brings sharp realism to the behind-the-scenes chaos, though the jokes could be sharper. [Read](https://variety.com/1998/film/reviews/sports-night-1200455073/) - **Paste**, Ciara Moloney (90/100, inferred): The critic calls Sports Night Sorkin's greatest work and among the most compelling television ever made, praising its unadulterated strengths in dialogue and character. She singles out the laugh track as its main flaw that dates it for modern viewers. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/abc/sports-night-aaron-sorkin-25th-anniversary-streaming-legacy) - **Collider**, Bob Starr (85/100, inferred): The critic deems Sports Night one of the best shows watched and a television upset due to its early cancellation, highlighting its masterful storytelling and enduring characters. He singles out William H. Macy's performance as the ratings consultant Sam Donovan as brilliant. [Read](https://collider.com/sports-night-the-complete-second-season-dvd-review/) - **The Ringer**, The Ringer Staff (80/100, inferred): Sports Night is a beloved deep cut and the first love in Sorkin's career of romanticizing workplaces, where he tried out many of the workplace plot lines later reused on The West Wing. The critic singles out the chemistry between Dan and Casey as well as the pride felt when Isaac tells Dana she made the right call. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2020/10/16/movies/aaron-sorkin-ranking-west-wing-social-network-few-good-men) ## Details - **Created by:** Aaron Sorkin - **Creator:** Aaron Sorkin - **Director:** Thomas Schlamme, Robert Berlinger, Alex Graves, Dennie Gordon, Timothy Busfield, Marc Buckland, Don Scardino, Danny Leiner, Bryan Gordon, Pamela Dresser - **Writer:** Aaron Sorkin, Matt Tarses, Bill Wrubel, David Walpert, Kevin Falls, Paul Redford, Rachel Sweet, Tom Szentgyorgyi, David Handelman, Miriam Kazdin, Tracey Stern, Mark McKinney, Chris Lusvardi, Pete McCabe - **Cinematography:** Peter Smokler - **Editor:** Janet Ashikaga - **Music:** W.G. Snuffy Walden - **Producer:** Tony Krantz, Brian Grazer, Aaron Sorkin - **Cast:** Josh Charles as Dan Rydell; Peter Krause as Casey McCall; Felicity Huffman as Dana Whitaker; Joshua Malina as Jeremy Goodwin; Sabrina Lloyd as Natalie Hurley; Robert Guillaume as Isaac Jaffe; Tim DeKay as Ray Mitchel; Nina Siemaszko as Holly - **Runtime:** 22m - **Release (Italy):** 22 September 1998 - **Genres:** Comedy, Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKfilzlEEY0 ## Where to watch in Italy Not streaming, renting or buying in Italy at the last check. Also available in: CA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Broadcast News* (1987), Fi1m 84: The newsroom romance Sorkin learned from, with Holly Hunter crying on a schedule. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/broadcast-news.md) - *The Larry Sanders Show* (1992), Fi1m 91: Another show about a show, meaner, slower and without a laughter track anywhere. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-larry-sanders-show.md) - *Drop the Dead Donkey* (1990), Fi1m 74: The British newsroom comedy: cheaper sets, sharper politics, the same walking and shouting. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/drop-the-dead-donkey.md) - *The West Wing* (1999), Fi1m 86: Sorkin moves the same walk and the same music into a bigger building. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-west-wing.md) - *Slings & Arrows* (2003): A Canadian theatre company falling apart backstage, funny and kind about competent people. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. 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