“This Is the Night TV Died”: Television Post-Object Fandom and the Demise of The West Wing

Abstract

This article examines fan identity and ontological security through the work of sociologist Anthony Giddens (1991, 1992) to explore how fans articulated their responses to the ending of the American political drama series The West Wing. The article discusses how fans negotiated their reactions to this cessation through a “reiteration discourse” in which they linked the show to their self-narratives and often interpreted and understood the show and its characters through their own real-life experiences. The article also examines how fans responded in the years after the show's cancellation, considering how they responded at the moment that their favored object ceased to be ongoing, and when their fandom moved into an era of what can be termed “post-object fandom.”