NBC will not air their new mid-season show in ER's timeslot! They just won't!

[Buffyboy323]

From Life Support to Miraculous Recovery for ‘ER’

THIS IS THE BEST NEWS I"VE HEARD ALL DAMN SEASON!

*Never take your most popular show off the air for three months in the middle of a season.

But after three weeks of what can only be described as a stunning ratings performance by that 13-year-old medical drama, NBC has reconsidered its plan to shelve the series from January to April in favor of an untried drama called “The Black Donnellys.”

“I will confirm that ‘ER’ is not going to go away until the spring,” said Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment. “We are going to keep ‘ER’ in its time period for at least 22 episodes this season.”

The “at least” is also significant because rather than thinking of ways to supplant “ER” this season, NBC and the show’s creators are considering expanding the series to 24 or 25 episodes to cover more weeks of the season with original episodes.

The entire strategy for the future of “ER” is up in the air. David Zabel, who runs the show as executive producer, after the long tenure of John Wells, said the plan had been to get through this truncated season and then end the series after one more season next year.

In a telephone interview this week he said that idea was being rethought. “As long as we can keep doing what we’re doing, I don’t see any reason the show can’t keep going on,” he said.

Rather than relegating the series to part-time status this year, Mr. Zabel said, he is all for expanding it. Networks often order additional episodes of their most popular shows to limit the number of in-season repeats.

Mr. Reilly said NBC had initially concluded that “ER” was faring worse and worse with repeats during the season and wanted to give “The Black Donnellys” a chance to grab some of the audience available in the Thursday time slot. Yesterday’s decision to continue “ER” had nothing to do with the quality of “The Black Donnellys,” said Mr. Reilly, who called that new show excellent.

The remarkable turn of events for “ER,” which was presumed to be making a few last turns on the stage before heading for the exit, is entirely due to what the show has accomplished in the season that began last month.

“ER” has been asked to perform an operation that might seem far-fetched even in its own emergency-room plotlines. It has been assigned the job of saving a sagging network’s life on the most important night of the week.

NBC, which once dominated Thursdays — the night for which advertisers pay the most to reach viewers because of weekend events like movie openings and car sales — has been severely injured by the scheduling of the most formidable shows that two competing networks have to offer.

This season, with ABC adding the hottest show on television, “Grey’s Anatomy,” to Thursday nights at 9, facing off against what had previously been the most-watched show on television, CBS’s “CSI,” NBC has taken a ferocious beating in that hour. That meant that “ER” confronted a seemingly impossible task at 10 p.m.: recruiting an audience back to NBC on that show’s merits alone.

And that is exactly what “ER” has done. It is somehow among the top-rated shows this season despite these facts: In raw numbers ABC’s 10 p.m. show, “Six Degrees,” inherits 24.2 million viewers watching the preceding “Grey’s Anatomy” while “ER” inherits only 9.9 million viewers watching NBC’s “Deal or No Deal.” “ER” lifts that number to 15 million viewers while its ABC counterpart plummets to just 10.7 million.

The performance is even more impressive for “ER” in ratings for the 18-to-49-year-old audience that NBC uses as its main measuring stick of success. By that measure “ER” is the No. 4 show on television this season.

One key to the comeback by “ER” was CBS’s decision to move its resident hit in that time period, “Without a Trace,” to Sunday nights. “Without a Trace” had begun to beat “ER” consistently last season, one reason the NBC show faced so many intimations of mortality.

But Mr. Reilly argued that the consistent quality of “ER” has brought back viewers and attracted some new ones. “It never stopped being compelling television,” he said. “It still has that adrenaline rush and emotional impact.”

A subtle advantage that may not have been apparent originally has been the complete turnover of the show’s cast. Not one of the original actors, who included George Clooney and Noah Wyle, remains. “But younger viewers don’t know that group,” Mr. Zabel said, pointing out that a female fan in her early 20’s would probably have been a child in bed at 10 p.m. when the series started.

Now the show has added a familiar star, John Stamos, as a cast regular, which Mr. Reilly said was expected to give the show an additional boost. He plays a paramedic studying to be a doctor.

Mr. Zabel agreed with the prediction, saying, “John is a charming, dynamic character who brings us a color we didn’t have.” But he noted that the continuing stars Goran Visnjic and Maura Tierney have also taken off as lead characters on the series, although that has happened largely under the radar.

“They’re still the new guys,” he said, “even though they’ve been on the show for seven years.”This should be an axiom of television programming if it isn’t already: Never take your most popular show off the air for three months in the middle of a season.

The #4 Show on TV??? IN it's 13th year??? Woot woot!

[snl 70s show fan]

yay you know a few weeks ago i was going to start a thread about what every boddy thought nbc would do if the black donnellys crashed and burned in er;s time slot i never got around to starting the thread but im thilled by the news that the last link to the glory days of must see tv will not be going away any time soon i also think the writing on er has really improved this season after being so so the last 2 seasons lets just hope nbc makes more good programing moves like this one

[Pavan]

ER is not #4 on TV...it is #15. It is NBC's top show, which is sad...well Football is at #12, so technically that is their best showing. But other than that, CBS and ABC have all the top 15 shows.

[Buffyboy323]

Originally Posted by pavanbadal

ER is not #4 on TV...it is #15. It is NBC's top show, which is sad...well Football is at #12, so technically that is their best showing. But other than that, CBS and ABC have all the top 15 shows.

It was NBC's 2nd highest rated show last season (After Deal or No Deal). And it's still better than most of all the other top shows on those Networks.