ER Finale Did What Show Did Best: Critics

(NEWSER) - Set your TiVo to stunned: George Clooney will make a return appearance on ER tonight, Entertainment Tonight reports. Clooney, who left the show in 1999, will star with his onetime on-screen love interest, Julianna Margulies. “I want their story to be very fulfilling in the end,” the episode’s writer said. Also appearing: Noah Wyle, who will run into Eriq La Salle while awaiting his kidney transplant. Oh, ER… More»

(NEWSER) - George Clooney’s appearance on ER last night gave the NBC standby a boost, E! Online reports. Thursday’s episode, which also featured cameos by Noah Wyle, Julianna Margulies, and Eriq La Salle brought in 10.7 million viewers, 2 million more than the previous week—though CBS’ Eleventh Hour, with 11.8 million, ruled the timeslot. More»

The last patient will be rushed into County General on March 12

(NEWSER) - NBC will pull the plug on ER’s 15-season run with a March 12 series finale, reports Access Hollywood. The long-running medical drama, created by the late Michael Crichton, will be replaced by Kings—a series chronicling the life of King David in modern times and starring Deadwood's Ian McShane. More»

Dish Network's Hopper can automatically skip commercials

(NEWSER) - How awesome would it be if your DVR automatically skipped commercials on shows recorded off the major networks? Probably not very awesome if you were one of those same networks, which is why they're outraged over the Dish Network's upcoming "Hopper," which, Dish announced last week, would be able to do just that with its "Auto Hop" feature. Fox released a statement today saying it would no longer accept ads for Hopper, and other networks have publicly expressed displeasure as well. More»

NBC musical dazzles critics... mostly

(NEWSER) - If you watched the Super Bowl, you just might have heard of Smash, NBC's new drama about the making of a Broadway musical. It premiered last night, and critics are (mostly) giving it a standing ovation:

• The buzz has gotten so intense that the conversation isn't even about whether it'll be good. "Good? Darling, it's great!" gushes Mary McNamara of the LA Times . The creators have "managed to capture the grand and sweeping gesture that is musical theater and inject it with the immediate intimacy of television," an impressive, unprecedented feat.