Thursday night's ER series finale played to an estimated 16.2 million viewers. The last time a (drama) series finale drew numbers like that was 1996; Murder, She Wrote's finale landed 16.5 million viewers 13 years ago.
ER was a heavyweight primetime draw in the 1990s, but the numbers continued to fall in its later years. ER filled NBC's 9:00 Thursday night timeslot for a whopping 15 years! And man, those first several years are some great TV! In fact, the one mainstay in my life in the late 1990s (think '98-99) was the two episode block on TNT after I got home from my grueling 12-hour computer tech job. I never missed that for the entire time I worked as the inconsiderate jerk on the other end of the line who thinks he knows everything... good times, good times. Sadly, ER was never the same following Anthony Edwards' departure, and everyone pretty much knew it. Still, it trudged through the routine until what was once the most popular TV drama in America was drawing fewer than 8 million viewers an episode.
The late Michael Crichton - better known for such fare as Jurassic Park - created the show. Comedies tend to draw larger finale numbers, with Seinfeld's finale drawing a whopping 76 million eyeballs. Long-running dramas are dwindling on the airwaves as their popularity wanes, though enterprising producers are looking to extend their lives beyond their heydays. Technological and commercial advancements, such as DVD and the Web, have forever changed television, and ER may well have been the last, great primetime drama of its kind.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
A rambling melange of pop-culture.
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