mrpayroll

http://www.nbc4.tv/news/3720528/deta...209102004&ts=H

POSTED: 8:26 am EDT September 10, 2004

NEW YORK -- So, the game now is, how will Dr. John Carter leave "ER?"

With a bang or a whimper? Will he be dead or alive?

Noah Wyle said this is it -- his final season. He's been with "ER" since the beginning and he's starting his 11th season. Wyle said it's time to move on.

Wyle is the last continuous link to the show's first season. His contract runs out after this year.

He told "E! News Live" he's "just got other stuff" going in his life right now -- a son, family and friends who said goodbye to him 12 years ago and are wondering when he's coming back.

Plus he said he has "this little urge to scratch a different kind of itch" in his career. And he feels "it's just coming to the end of the character's run."

His spokesman says Wyle hasn't yet told the show's creators about his plans -- which he admits could change before year's end.


And it's probably time to end ER after this season, also. It hasn't been must see TV for many years now. But NBC will probably keep it around a couple of more years, since it's still in the Top 10.

Chris

The Demon

Who cares? Does anyone still watch this show?

MrX

Not really a surprise. They've been focusing more on the younger cast anyway and I'm sure that will continue.

I think this is Visnjic's last year too so they could have 2 big roles to fill.

They're not going to cancel it since it's beating Without A Trace, for now. They know if ER goes so does that timeslot unless they move one of the Law & Order's there.

das Monkey

In the future, people will talk about how he left the show halfway into its run.

das

B.A.

Plenty of people still watch the show - it's still pretty damn good most of the time.

Jobronie

Geez, get to the point already and just call him the male Shelley Long....

xVladx

Meh, I completely gave up on the show after they killed Romano...

QuikSilver

I'm not surprised to hear Noah leaving the show. Can't believe the show is it's 11th season. Time flies.

After Mark Green died, I stopped watching the weekly. I will only watch the show once in a while.

Charlie Goose

Same here, and it wasn't just because they killed the most interesting character. That was just the final straw for me. After the death of Mark Greene, they introduced several new and incredibly unlikable and annoying characters. The scripts were also poor. The weak writing was shown in the loss of Romano's arm. It smacked of shock-tv, to maim a major character. Unfortunately, they were painted into a corner. They obviously didn't think far enough ahead and were unable to write for a one-armed surgeon, so in another attempt to surprise viewers, they dropped a helicopter on his head. Haven't seen ten seconds of it since.

movieking

I gave up before Romano died. I just couldn't stand the explosions, hostage takings, and shooting in the hospital every week.

MikeL.

I like the dude.

I like watching him with Maura Tierney's Abby. I wonder what's going to happen with them if he leaves. I always figured the writers weren't done with them as a couple even though they weren't together last season.

Maybe another Doug and Carol situation.

Michael Corvin

I still love the show. Hate Pratt, but like most everyone else.

Is it just me or does Noah/Carter need someone to bounce off of? His character has kinda been in limbo for me since LaSalle/Benton left. He hasn't really had that same kind of chemistry with anyone else. I didn't buy the Abbey/Carter thing one bit. But that might have just been me.

B.A.

I've always been a fan of the Abby/Carter combination, too. Even if he leaves the show after this season, I hope they end up together.

mrpayroll

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...kesleavefromer

After 11 years, Dr. Carter takes leave from 'ER'

Thu Mar 31, 7:52 AM ET Entertainment - USATODAY.com


By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY

It's the end of an ERa.

Noah Wyle, the only ER lead to stay with the hit NBC drama for its 11-year run, will depart as a cast regular in May and return for four episodes in each of the next two seasons.

Wyle's character, Dr. John Carter, will say his goodbye to colleagues at Chicago's County General Hospital in the season finale May 19. One week earlier, Carter will reunite with his true love, Kem (Thandie Newton), in Paris, producers say. ER (tonight, 9:59 ET/PT) will shoot in the French capital in early April.

Executive producer John Wells says he'll feel the loss personally as well as professionally; he and Wyle, 33, are among just a few people still with the show who worked on the 1994 pilot. Sherry Stringfield, another original, returned as Dr. Susan Lewis in 2001 after a five-year absence.

"It's very sad for me. Noah and I have a lot of history together," Wells says. "He's a wonderful actor and a wonderful man, and it's been great to watch him grow up and get married and have a family."

Wyle, who has received five Emmy nominations for his portrayal of Carter, said last fall that he planned to leave ER when his contract expired at the end of this TV season. But he left the door ajar on whether he would return in some capacity.

Wells says it came down to the actor being interested in other career opportunities and the writers having difficulty finding new story ideas for Carter on a series so focused on character relationships.

ER, which has been renewed through 2007-08, is no longer the ratings juggernaut of Wyle's earlier years, but it remains NBC's most-watched scripted series and performs strongly with advertiser-coveted young adults. CBS' Without a Trace now beats ER in viewers (18.9 million viewers to 16.1 million for the 2004-05 season), but ER leads among ages 18 to 49 (9.8 million to just under 8 million).

Wyle's Carter will be leaving to work with a Doctors Without Borders-type organization, Wells says. In an earlier plotline, Carter and Dr. Luka Kovac (Goran Visnjic) provided medical services in Africa, which is where Carter met Kem, a health administrator who works with AIDS patients. Kem left for Africa early this season, after the couple had a baby boy who died.

Wyle, part of an original cast that included George Clooney, Anthony Edwards and Eriq La Salle, took a six-episode break in fall 2003 to spend time with his wife, Tracy, and baby, Owen.

In December, Wyle starred in an action-adventure film, TNT's The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, which received good reviews and attracted a robust 7 million viewers. It was ad-supported cable's highest-rated movie in households for 2004; a sequel is in development.

Tom Weeks of media buyer Starcom Entertainment says Wyle developed Carter into a strong lead character over the years, but his departure shouldn't significantly harm the ensemble show. "No one wants to see him go, but I think the hospital is what people tune in to watch."


Sad to see him go, but I haven't watched at all this season, after watching the first 10 years.

Chris

OldBoy

god bless him. it was an incredible run. he was one that truly made the show what it was in the beginning to middle years!!

mikehunt

maybe gallant can come back and replace him

Legolas

They SHOULD bring back Gallant, but the last two times they brought back characters as regulars they pretty much wasted their talent/potential -- Lewis and Chen.

Patman

Good luck, Dr. Carter, you rich bastard!

tommyp007

You made itr much further than I did. I left when Greene died, but only watched it sporadically after Clooney left.

adamblast

I left when George did.

Patman

I think it had something to do with Madchen Amick getting written out of the show:

"What, no more Wendell for Carter, fuck it, I'm gone!"

mikehunt

true

Cusm

My money is on him returning to Africa and his ugly ass ex-girlfriend. I hope they do not kill him off, ER has done that to death.

vaporware

That's exactly what they are going to do. Plus he's agreed to do 4 episodes each season for the next two seasons.

B.A.

At least he will come back for the eight eps over the next two years.

Is Visnjic still leaving after this season? Or was that just an unconfirmed rumor?

I'd be happy if they brought Gallant back.