This article is more than 8 years old

Summer Diversion – The West Wing Characters: Ranked

A diversion for August. A pointless ranking of West Wing characters. Much to disagree with.
This article is more than 8 years old

Paul Greatrix is Registrar at The University of Nottingham, author and creator of Registrarism and a Contributing Editor of Wonkhe.

A unique ranking. And not a Higher Education one.

Here it is. Not a ranking of universities. Instead it’s a league table of West Wing characters.

Wonkhe West Wing

It seems like an age since The West Wing was the most unmissable TV show. Now with wonders of the box set and everything always available online there really is no excuse for not constantly re-watching one of the best programmes ever. It does also seem to be a particular favourite among wonks.
I was slightly taken aback though by this ranking of characters from the programme which started to go awry after the first few placings and resulted in poor showings for some great individuals. There’s no indication of the methodology here so the whole thing lacks any kind of credibility. Having said that we’ll use it anyway…
So, who are your favourites? Which West Wing character did you see yourself as or most want to be? And have you ever imagined yourself and a team of colleagues as if you were all from the show? Right, just me then.
There are some rather strange ones in the top 20
1. C.J. Cregg
2. Jed Bartlet
3. Toby Ziegler
4. Leo McGarry
5. Amy Gardner
CJ - No 1, of course
CJ – No 1, of course

6. Abbey Bartlet

7. Margaret Hooper
8. Nancy McNally
9. Charlie Young
10. Joey Lucas
11. Sam Seaborn
12. Percy Fitzwallace
13. Mrs. Landingham
14. Ainsley Hayes
15. Zoey Bartlet
16. Arnold Vinick
17. Josh Lyman
18. Lord John Marbury
19. Lionel Tribbey
20. John Hoynes
And a few who unaccountably missed the cut and will be calling their agents:
22. Will Bailey
24. Kate Harper
26. Oliver Babish
27. Debbie Fiderer
30. Bruno Gianelli
34. Danny Concannon
35. Matt Santos
39. Donna Moss
As for the other ones, not sure I could ever get that interested in characters such as Toby’s ex-wife or Cliff Calley.
For anyone who is interested my top 5 is as follows: CJ, Joey Lucas, Bruno, Bartlet and Oliver Babish.
Who are your favourites?

2 responses to “Summer Diversion – The West Wing Characters: Ranked

  1. The absence of a complete methodology is of course, consistent with the best traditions of Univ lge tables….

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