This ER trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers all fifteen seasons of NBC's medical drama, from Michael Crichton's 1974 script and the 1994 pilot to the 2009 finale that finally showed the outside of County General. Questions take in the original cast and their arcs, the live episode 'Ambush', 'Love's Labor Lost', Lucy Knight and Carter's stabbing, Mark Greene's last days in Hawaii, Robert Romano's helicopters, Clooney's secret return, the ratings peaks, the record 124 Emmy nominations and the Third Watch crossover. It is written for anyone who watched Thursday nights in the 1990s and 2000s or has since binged the show on streaming: easy questions on the cast, harder ones on episode details and production history. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which best-selling author created ER, based on a script he had written in 1974?
Michael Crichton
The Harvard-trained doctor's pilot script drew on his own medical training; the networks passed on it for twenty years.
Q 02Which director's company, Amblin Television, co-produced ER after steering it toward TV?
Steven Spielberg
Constant c Productions and Amblin made the show with Warner Bros. Television, with John Wells as showrunner.
Q 03ER premiered on NBC on 19 September of which year?
1994
It ran until 2 April 2009: 15 seasons and 331 episodes.
Q 04How many episodes of ER were made across its fifteen seasons?
331
Most seasons had 22 episodes; season 14 was shortened to 19 by the writers' strike.
Q 05ER is set in the emergency room of which fictional Chicago hospital?
County General
The finale's last shot pulled back to show the whole hospital exterior for the only time in the series.
Q 06Which actor played Dr. Mark Greene, the lead of ER's first eight seasons?
Anthony Edwards
Greene died of a glioblastoma in Hawaii in 2002, the only original main character to die during the series.
Q 07Where does Mark Greene spend his final days in the season 8 episode 'On the Beach'?
Hawaii
He grew up there and takes his estranged daughter Rachel along; 28.7 million watched Anthony Edwards' last regular episode.
Q 08George Clooney's character Doug Ross was a doctor in which specialty?
Paediatrics
His storm-drain rescue of a boy in 'Hell and High Water' drew 48 million viewers, the show's peak.
Q 09At the end of which year of the show did George Clooney depart as a regular?
Fifth
He left in 'The Storm' in 1999, then secretly returned in the season 6 finale when Carol Hathaway flew to Seattle to find him.
Q 10Julianna Margulies played which nurse?
Carol Hathaway
She and Clooney returned together in the 2009 episode 'Old Times' as a married couple working in Seattle.
Q 11Noah Wyle's John Carter starts the series as what?
A third-year medical student
Wyle appeared in 254 episodes, more than any other cast member, and won his first Emmy in 2025 for The Pitt.
Q 12Which patient stabbed Carter and medical student Lucy Knight on Valentine's Day in season six?
Paul Sobriki
Lucy died of a massive blood clot in 'All in the Family'; Carter survived with kidney damage and later a painkiller addiction.
Q 13Which actress played the ill-fated medical student Lucy Knight?
Kellie Martin
Kerry Weaver found the two of them bleeding on the floor as the staff's Valentine's party wound down.
Q 21Eriq La Salle played which ambitious surgeon who left the show in season 8?
Peter Benton
Benton left to spend more time with his son Reese and returned for the finale.
Q 22Which Croatian actor played Dr. Luka Kovac, whose family was killed in the Balkan war?
Goran Visnjic
Kovac eventually married Abby Lockhart, who had risen from nurse to doctor.
Q 23How does Mekhi Phifer's Dr. Greg Pratt die in the season 15 premiere?
Injuries from an ambulance explosion
Angela Bassett joined the same season as new ER chief Cate Banfield.
Q 14Which country did Carter travel to for humanitarian work, where he met Kem Likasu?
The Congo
In season 15 he returned to County General needing dialysis and a kidney transplant, arranged by old colleagues.
Q 15Which two-part live broadcast opened ER's fourth season in September 1997?
Ambush
It was performed twice, for the East and West coasts, and drew 42.7 million viewers, a record for a drama premiere.
Q 16The live season-four premiere was framed as what?
A PBS documentary crew filming the ER
Thomas Schlamme directed with 11 cameras; the episode also introduced Alex Kingston as surgeon Elizabeth Corday.
Q 17Which five-Emmy season 1 episode sees Greene lose a mother during an emergency delivery?
Love's Labor Lost
Lance Gentile won for writing and Mimi Leder for directing; TV Guide ranked it third-best episode of all time in 1997.
Q 18What condition did Greene miss in the pregnant patient in the Emmy-winning season 1 delivery episode?
Eclampsia
She was first thought to have a urinary tract infection; the episode is still shown to medical students.
Q 19How did surgeon Robert Romano lose his arm in the season 9 premiere?
A helicopter rotor severed it
A season later, in 'Freefall', a helicopter fell off the hospital roof and killed him outright.
Q 20Which actor played the abrasive Dr. Robert Romano?
Paul McCrane
One critic called his death by falling helicopter one of the silliest moments in ER history.
Q 24Laura Innes played which crutch-using ER chief who appeared from season 2 to season 13?
Kerry Weaver
Innes also directed several episodes and returned for the finale.
Q 25Gloria Reuben's physician assistant Jeanie Boulet dealt with which storyline before leaving in season 6?
Living with HIV and adopting an HIV-positive child
The show was praised for its handling of HIV at a time when few dramas touched it.
Q 26Which Full House star joined ER in its later seasons as paramedic-turned-doctor Tony Gates?
John Stamos
Two other later additions played nurse Sam Taggart and Neela Rasgotra in the same era.
Q 27How many Primetime Emmy nominations did ER receive, a record for a drama?
124
It won 23 of them plus a Peabody Award.
Q 28Which 1995 ER episode, with Doug Ross rescuing a boy from a storm drain, drew a record 48 million viewers?
Hell and High Water
The media coverage within the story helped Ross keep his job at County.
Q 29In which of its years was ER television's number one programme, averaging over 35 million viewers?
Second (1995-96)
Ratings slid gradually after that, but the finale still pulled over 16 million.
Q 30What was the title of ER's two-hour series finale on 2 April 2009?
And in the End...
Rod Holcomb directed and John Wells wrote it; Mark Greene's daughter Rachel appears as a prospective medical student.