The first season of House premiered November 16, 2004, and ended May 24, 2005. The season follows Dr. Gregory House and his team as they solve a medical case each episode. The season's sub-plot revolves around billionaire Edward Vogler making a $100 million donation to the hospital. Through this donation, Vogler becomes the new chairman of the board and orders House to fire one of his team members. Vogler does this to show House he can control him: "I need to know that whatever I ask you to do, however distasteful you find it, you'll do it". Chi McBride joined the cast as Vogler in five episodes of the season. His character was brought in after Universal Studios president Jeff Zucker threatened that the season would be cut short by six episodes if a "boss" character wasn't added. While there were possibilities of the character returning, he was generally disliked by viewers and critics and therefore not brought back to the show. Sela Ward, who would return as the main recurring character of season two, appeared in the final two episodes as Stacy Warner, House's former girlfriend. Cast and characters Main cast Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House Lisa Edelstein as Dr. Lisa Cuddy Omar Epps as Dr. Eric Foreman Robert Sean Leonard as Dr. James Wilson Jennifer Morrison as Dr. Allison Cameron Jesse Spencer as Dr. Robert Chase Recurring cast Chi McBride as Edward Vogler Sela Ward as Stacy Warner Stephanie Venditto as Nurse Brenda Previn Kenneth Choi as Dr. Lim Ron Perkins as Dr. Ron Simpson Currie Graham as Mark Warner Maurice Godin as Dr. Lawrence Hourani Guest cast Andrew Airlie, John Patrick Amedori, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Patrick Bauchau, Nicole Bilderback, Brandy, Hedy Burress, Nestor Carbonell, Ever Carradine, John Cho, Sarah Clarke, David Conrad, Christina Cox, Missy Crider, Myndy Crist, Nicholas D'Agosto, Ann Dowd, Stacy Edwards, Carmen Electra, Cynthia Ettinger, Scott Foley, Erin Foster, Kurt Fuller, Wendy Gazalle, Michael A. Goorjian, Peter Graves, Stanislav Grof, Mark Harelik, Roxanne Hart, David Henrie, Aaron Himelstein, Marin Hinkle, Leslie Hope, Lucinda Jenney, Andrew Keegan, Shirley Knight, Harry Lennix, Eddie McClintock, Scott Mechlowicz, Tracy Middendorf, Elizabeth Mitchell, Meredith Monroe, Joe Morton, Danny Nucci, Faith Prince, Dominic Purcell, Daryl Sabara, Amanda Seyfried, Alex Skuby, Jennifer Stone, Robin Thomas, Sam Trammell, Robin Tunney, Kristoffer Ryan Winters, Kevin Zegers and Josh Zuckerman. Reception Season one gained high Nielsen ratings, averaging 13.3 million viewers an episode.