Forty-one is old on TV. And if you’re a woman? Forget about it! The people who run TV must figure that we’d all stop watching “ER’’ en masse if a middle-aged woman were one of the stars. Stories about her personal life, about facing middle age? Ugh.

Better to populate the show with hunky guys in their early 30s and beautiful but spunky twentysomething female med students. Who wants to see soon-to-be senior citizens on TV?

This 44-year-old, for one.

I long to see a woman with crow’s feet around her eyes, a few lines on her face, a gray hair or two.

I’d even like to see people — gasp — in their 50s and 60s.

But just about everyone who is a star on TV is young. And a lot of the people who aren’t young are doing extreme things to look young. (News flash: It never works. We can spot a Botox treatment a mile away.)

In the TV world, most old people — those over 40 — are delegated to supporting roles. You see them playing judges and attorneys. They are parents and cranky neighbors.

But their stories are rarely front and center. They have no love lives, no career decisions to make, no great joys or tragedies. They are just there to live in the world of the young stars.

And that doesn’t make any sense. People who have lived a while are usually a lot more interesting than their twentysomething counterparts. They are seasoned. Fine wine instead of soda pop.

So why can’t we see their stories on TV? Why do the people who run TV think we won’t be interested?

Supposedly, it’s all about demographics. Advertisers are interested in consumers who are 19 to 49. Apparently, when you hit 50, you don’t buy things anymore. It doesn’t matter that you probably are making lots more money than you did in your 20s, you are no longer a viable consumer. You don’t count.

And, apparently, people who are 19 to 49 have absolutely no desire to watch people who are older than 40 on TV.

I’m surprised by the top end of that demographic. I suspect advertisers are really looking at the 19-year-old side of it, not the 49-year-old side of it.

Why do we have such a problem with aging in America? Why do all our stars start getting Botox and diamond abrasions and facelifts in their 30s? Why does everyone have this strange plastic quality to their skin?

Why doesn’t anyone — well, hardly anyone — want to age gracefully?

Watch a European movie and you see women with lines on their faces. They look fabulous and they are fascinating. Watch British sitcoms and most everyone in the shows is middle-aged. And they are funny too.

In defense of “ER,’’ Kingston was not told she was let go because she’s too old. She is assuming that.

In an interview with London’s Radio Times magazine, she said the show was increasingly focused on young characters “and apparently I, according to the producers and the writers, am part of the old fogies who are no longer interesting.’’

Hey Alex, go get some Botox. Maybe they’ll let you stay another year or two until your creakiness just gets too awful to watch.

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Jane Holahan is a New Era staff writer. Her column appears every Wednesday.

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