New Spoilers from TV Guide

[er02]

Question: Do you have any scoop on ER?
Ausiello: It wouldn't be sweeps without a big-budget catastrophe on ER. Next month, Abby will find herself risking life and limb to pluck passengers from a bus that careened over an embankment. She'll also meet a cocky member of a medical transport unit (played by Vyto Ruginis), and sparks will fly.

Question: I'm already tired of John Stamos' character on ER, and hate him with Neela. Please tell me there's some good news for Ray and Neela fans!
Ausiello: Sorry, couldn't disagree with you more. I'm totally digging Gates and Neela, even if Neela isn't totally digging Gates. But that'll change next month when the two get it on behind closed doors — elevator doors. And don't feel too sorry for Ray. He won't be sleeping alone for too much longer.

[Cornflake Girl]

Thanks for that! I hope that the sparks that fly are not romamtic of any kind I would be so angry! But it does sound like a great Abby episode - yay!!!!

And I am with that person who is sick of Gates, I hope him and Neela don't carry on with a relationship

ETA; I just IMDB'd Vyto Ruginis and he looks kinda old from his picture maybe this will be Abbys dad?

[larue]

Today's News: Our Take
by Matt Webb Mitovich

Thriving ER Can Breathe Easy — Hiatus Nixed

Due to its impressive ratings performance against newbies Shark and Six Degrees — falling just shy of the top spot when it doesn't outright claim it — NBC's ER won't be put on midseason hiatus as originally planned. "ER is not going away until the spring," NBC Entertainment prez Kevin Reilly tells the New York Times.

So rather that sit the 13-year-old medical drama from January to April, to turn over its time slot to The Black Donnellys, "We are going to keep ER [where it is] for at least 22 episodes," says Reilly. NBC may, in fact, even extend ER's production schedule to 24 or 25 new outings this season. We are so going to need more suction.