14 DAY TRIAL // Despite the fact that one of the biggest “ER” stars, George Clooney, was absent in the other night’s two-hour special finale, the series went out with a bang, scoring ratings gold for NBC, The Live Feed informs. 16.3 million viewers were glued to their TV sets to see the last moments of the medical drama series that literally made the genre famous.
“NBC received a towering rating for its two-hour series finale of ‘ER.’ The last episode of the veteran medical drama was seen by 16.3 million viewers and drew a 6.0 preliminary adults 18-49 rating Thursday night. The performance is the most-watched drama series finale since CBS’ ‘Murder She Wrote’ ended in 1996 and the highest-rated among the adult demo since Fox’s ‘The X-Files’ concluded in 2002.” the aforementioned source reports.
The “ER” finale scored the biggest ratings for NBC in almost three years, leaving all competing networks a great distance behind. In doing so, it also topped the March episode in which George Clooney made his return to the series that virtually put him on the map, and which left fans somewhat disappointed. Fans were all the more let down when they saw that the finale, although bringing back the former cast in its entirety, did not include Clooney as well.
Eriq La Salle, Thandie Newton, Noah Wyle, Alex Kingston, Laura Innes and Sherry Stringfield all put in an appearance in the final episode, reprising their old parts. Notably absent was, as mentioned above, George Clooney, who would not take part in the last moments of the show for reasons that the network has failed to mention so far. Although a far cry from its peak audience of 32 million Americans, as it scored in the ‘90s, the 16.3 million viewers represented a good figure for the official end of the longstanding series.
“NBC won the night with its ‘ER’ blowout. CBS was second with ‘Survivor’ and procedurals. Fox placed third with ‘Bones’ (9 million, 2.6) and ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ (7 million, 3.2). ABC ranked fourth with new comedy ‘In the Motherhood’ (5 million, 1.6) falling 27% from its premiere and ‘Samantha Who’ (4.8 million, 1.5) hitting a series low. ABC cut back on its ‘Motherhood’ order after its premiere rating and with this performance its future prospects don’t look too good.” The Live Feed further says of the performances of other shows on the other big players in television.