George Clooney feared 'ER would never be released

American actor George Clooney has revealed that there was a time when he feared that his doc-drama ER would never be released.

Clooney, 47, recalled the incident while at the Reel Journalism Festival, held at Washington, D.C.'s Newseum on January 26, where he stated that network bosses had thought the drama was not going to get much credit as it dealt with the average viewers.

"I was at a screening when the pilot of ER was screened, and the heads of the network looked at Les Moonves, the head of Warner Bros., and said, 'What the hell did you do with our 2.5 million dollars?'" People magazine quoted him as saying.

"They thought it was a flop. [Moonves] kept saying, 'Do you like it?' They said, 'It doesn't matter if we like it. It's too fast, the audience can't keep up'. 

"It ended up getting a prime time spot. We were averaging 40 million people a week," Clooney stated.

He added: "You look at shows over the years that have been consistently major hits, like M.A.S.H, Cheers, Seinfeld, NYPD Blues, they're well written, they're smart, they survive."