Charlie Skinner

Charlie Skinner runs News Night as its president and elder statesman, a veteran newsman with a scotch in one hand and a fierce moral compass in the other. Gruff, funny, and a little theatrical, he backs his anchor's on-air meltdown and rebuilds the show around a stricter idea of journalism, whatever it costs the network.

Sam Waterston plays him as an old lion who has seen every kind of cowardice television can produce and simply refuses more of it. The role gives him big Sorkin speeches about integrity, but Waterston's rumpled warmth and dry timing keep him human rather than a mouthpiece, and genuinely funny.