ER ends well

Just for the sake of history, I wanted to note that Thursday's ER finale (9-11PM) got 16.2 million viewers, which was the largest audience for a drama series finale since Murder She Wrote in 1996 (16.5). But when this is compared with  the most-watched television episode in U.S. television history the last M.A.S.H. with over 105 million viewers it doesn't hold a candle. The only current TV series that might garner that many viewers at the end (not upcoming) is The Simpsons.

The end of ER and NBC

Well ER just finished after 15 years. It was as good an ending as could be. Some of the veterans were there, a new generation of ER doctors ( Rachel Greene, Mark Greene's daughter) and at the end an explosion brings many new patients to the ER, and life and death go on.

But the end of ER may symbolize the end of NBC as a serious network. They have already announced that they (like Fox, My9 and WB11) are abandoning programing the 10:00 o'clock hour. Five nights of Jay Leno at 10PM is the equivalent of news.

But yesterday they announced the end of serious journalism at NBC by firing the best sportscaster in the business. After 25 years Len Berman and channel 4 are no more and NBC 4 news and I are no more. When the bottom line determines journalistic values that's the end of serious journalism.

Once-upon-a-time NBC was the hallmark of network TV - Hill St. Blues, Cheers, St. Elswhere, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, West Wing and now five nights of Jay Leno. No offense to Leno, but come on that's not prime time network TV, that's protecting your bottom line and the audience be damned.