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'ER' concludes on powerful ratings note

Geplaatst op 03 april 2009 16:49 door gsprimo

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.

For an episode of "ER," last night's performance stands as its biggest rating in three years, easily surpassing a March episode featuring the return of early cast members such as George Clooney (4.0). Even a one-hour "ER" retrospective (10.6 million, 3.5) at 8 p.m. performed strong, barely placing second to CBS' "Survivor" (11.2 million, 3.6), which hit a low.

The medical drama was NBC's top-rated drama for 12 seasons and reached its ratings peak with a 25.8 in an episode airing after the "Seinfeld" series finale in 1998.

"ER" was aided by ABC getting out of the way and airing repeats of its medical dramas, though CBS plowed ahead with originals and took a hard knock -- the 200th episode of "CSI" (14.4 million, 3.7) hit a series low, followed by a modestly rated episode of "Eleventh Hour" (10.4 million, 2.5).

The final performance of NBC's longtime 10 p.m. veteran comes on the heels of NBC's Boston affiliate refusing to go along with plans to replace scripted programming in the hour with a Jay Leno talk show next fall.

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.