Aaron Sorkin Fires Most of the Writing Staff on HBO's The Newsroom

Posted on July 20, 2012

Aaron Sorkin has fired reportedly fired nearly the entire writing staff of his HBO show The Newsroom. His ex-girlfriend Corinne Kingsbury is one of the remaining writers of the show. Sorkin's show was just renewed for a second season and ratings are good. The reviews have been mixed, however.

Sorkin told Vanity Fair in May that he loves to most of the writing himself, "I'm not an empire builder. I'm not interested in just producing. All I want to do is write. I came up as a playwright -- writing is something you do by yourself in a room....That said, I couldn't possibly write the show without that room full of people. I go in there, and we kick around ideas. I'm writing about all kinds of things I don't know anything about. So they do research for me."

Sorkin had less than 10 writers on the show. HBO's played down the firings in a statement, saying, "Every year each show reassesses the needs of its writing staffs. This process is nothing out of the ordinary."

Update: Sorkin says he did not fire most of his writing staff. Deadline reports that the story circulating the Internet is "unsourced and untrue."

Sorkin also says Corinne Kingsbury is not his ex-girlfriend. He says, "I think she is at the beginning of a very exciting career and I would hate for this rumor impact her career or follow her around for the rest of her life."

Photo: HBO