The show aired in the premiere slot for the new season and was probably the most watched episode of the series. It drew in new viewers, Jan put out her best appearance ever and many stayed. She laughed that the part had no future.  The show had higher ratings in year six than in any other year. The fear that Denise was the basis of the ratings faded. Nobody in the cast or staff expected the media and public reaction. To avoid using Denise they looked for a young woman of about the same build and facial features. Jan’s cousin Amy was selected. They dyed her blond hair dark to match Denise and did some makeup to make her look more like Denise. She only appeared in the very dramatic vehicle extraction and ER scenes. The accident was staged to be within two miles of her home and several of her friends saw her in the car. There was no scene she appeared in before the accident. Real paramedics and firemen were used in the extraction scene and it was awesome. One of the firemen was told to wait till they got a better camera angle and responded, “We can’t wait for that, we have to get this girl out of here. We are going to loose her if we don’t move.” The camera had a side angle of him when he said it and the mic picked up the audio.

He had obviously gotten into the scene so much that this was for him a real rescue. His tone of voice and the urgency in it were obvious. When the editors saw it they spliced in another fireman’s shot where he said, “We need to get another unit here” that was just as real.  The studio sent the two firemen checks, they signed them over to the firemen’s benevolence fund. A few weeks later they were both approached by studios. Would they work some off days reviewing scripts of emergency calls to help them be more realistic. The money was good, both men agreed. A year later they had both built up college funds for their kids. Amy got a mere $20,000 for the episode. She laughed when she took the part that nobody would ever see her or know if she could really act. She didn’t realize she would get her name on the credits and in the media coverage of the show.