In addition to, you know, you got 3A stories.

On top of that, you got the master narrative.

But then on top of that, there's also the meta narrative because clearly by this point,

Studio 60 on the sunset strip, the show, the ratings are maybe not going so good.

The show is people are not responding to the show very well.

There's an early line from Danny in this episode where he says,

I've been hearing a lot of talk about ratings around here this week, and I want it out of

your heads. Ratings are the business of the network and advertisers. Our customer is the audience,

and they are right out there. I like to think that that's just something that Aaron Sorkin was

saying to the cast on set. Yeah, don't worry. We're not about to get canceled because, you know, we play for the fans, not the critics, man.

I was kind of hoping that this show would go, I don't know, full Charlie Kaufman and become

completely a meta exercise and its own failure.

Well, then it would be good.

It doesn't quite do that because Sorkan, he's got an ego still, too.

So on the show, you're constantly hearing about the ratings, Stephen Weber, the network

president, not William Fickner.

He keeps coming in and saying things like, oh, you got a five, nine share out of 11 or, you

know, network lingo.

And it's like, hey, but that's still pretty good.

You would have killed for those numbers, you know, network lingo. And it's like, hey, but that's still pretty good. You would have, you would have killed for those numbers, you know, a while ago.

Yeah, but, but, you know, you're losing, you're losing Red State affiliate.

Yeah, the shareholders are going to have my ass.

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