The show has lost a lot of its appeal for me, starting way back when Aaron Sorkin left, and I feared that this evening’s episode — airing live — would be gimmicky.

But actually, it was kind of interesting, and made you long for REAL debates.  More here.

UPDATE:  Mmmm.  I thought this was interesting:

The performance — a blend of scripted dialogue and improvisation — was repeated three hours later in another live airing for West Coast viewers. The actors and Sawyer pulled off the latter half of the double-header smoothly and without major glitches.

I’m not sure what "glitches" were in the East Coast version I saw.  But it did seem that there was some improvization (talking over each other, etc.).  It really added to the realism.