The Pitt

This article is about the television series. For the comic book, see The Pitt (comics). For the video game expansion pack, see Fallout 3 downloadable content § The Pitt.

The Pitt
Genre	Medical drama Procedural drama
Created by	R. Scott Gemmill
Showrunner	R. Scott Gemmill
Starring	Noah Wyle Tracy Ifeachor Patrick Ball Katherine LaNasa Supriya Ganesh Fiona Dourif Taylor Dearden Isa Briones Gerran Howell Shabana Azeez
Music by	Gavin Brivik
Ending theme	"Fail Forward" by Gavin Brivik and Taji
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	15
Production
Executive producers	R. Scott Gemmill John Wells Noah Wyle Michael Hissrich Erin Jontow Simran Baidwan
Cinematography	Johanna Coelho
Editors	Mark Strand Joey Reinisch Lauren Pendergrass Annie Eifrig
Running time	41–61 minutes
Production companies	John Wells Productions Warner Bros. Television
Original release
Network	Max
Release	January 9, 2025 (2025-01-09) – present

The Pitt is an American medical procedural drama television series created by R. Scott Gemmill, and executive produced by John Wells and Noah Wyle. It is Gemmill, Wells and Wyle's second collaboration, having previously worked together on ER. It stars Wyle, Tracy Ifeachor, Patrick Ball, Katherine LaNasa, Supriya Ganesh, Fiona Dourif, Taylor Dearden, Isa Briones, Gerran Howell and Shabana Azeez. The series follows emergency department staff as they attempt to overcome the hardships of a single 15-hour work shift at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital all while having to navigate staff shortages, underfunding and insufficient resources. Each episode of the season covers approximately one hour of the work shift.

The Pitt premiered on Max on January 9, 2025. The series has received acclaim from critics for its writing, direction and acting performances. The series has also been praised by the medical community for its accuracy, realistic portrayal of healthcare workers and addressing the psychological challenges faced in a post-pandemic world. The Pitt was renewed for a second season in February 2025, scheduled to premiere in January 2026.

Premise

Attending physician Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch starts a grueling shift at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital's emergency room (ER), nicknamed "the Pitt" by its staff, by welcoming four newcomers: Victoria Javadi, a third-year medical student; Dennis Whitaker, a fourth-year medical student; Dr. Trinity Santos, an intern; and Dr. Melissa "Mel" King, a second-year resident. Throughout the next fifteen hours, the students and residents learn more about their professional duties, while trying to deal with the emotional toll of patient care and the hardships of working in an overcrowded and underfunded ER, guided by Robby and the Pitt's other staff members, including charge nurse Dana Evans, second-year resident Dr. Cassie McKay, third-year resident Dr. Samira Mohan, and senior residents Dr. Heather Collins and Dr. Frank Langdon. Meanwhile, Robby struggles to cope with traumatic memories resurfacing on the fourth anniversary of his mentor's death, which happened in the Pitt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cast and characters

Main

• Noah Wyle as Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, a senior attending physician who is still reeling from his traumatic experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Tracy Ifeachor as Dr. Heather Collins, a senior resident in the emergency room who clashes with Dr. Robby
• Patrick Ball as Dr. Frank Langdon, a senior resident and Dr. Robby's right hand
• Katherine LaNasa as Dana Evans, the charge nurse of the emergency room
• Supriya Ganesh as Dr. Samira Mohan, a third-year medical resident
• Fiona Dourif as Dr. Cassie McKay, a 42-year-old second-year resident raising her young son, Harrison, as a single mother
• Taylor Dearden as Dr. Melissa "Mel" King, a (possibly) neurodivergent second-year resident who has experience working with military veterans
• Isa Briones as Dr. Trinity Santos, an impudent first-year resident with an overly confident personality
• Gerran Howell as Dennis Whitaker, a fourth-year medical student who lacks confidence
• Shabana Azeez as Victoria Javadi, a 20-year-old third-year medical student whose parents both work at the hospital as well-known, respected doctors

Recurring

• Shawn Hatosy as Dr. Jack Abbott, a doctor and "old rival" to Robby
• Amielynn Abellera as Perlah, a nurse working in the ER
• Jalen Thomas Brooks as Mateo Diaz, a nurse working in the ER
• Brandon Mendez Homer as Donnie, a nurse working in the ER
• Kristin Villanueva as Princess, a nurse working in the ER
• Joanna Going as Theresa Saunders, a middle-aged woman concerned about her son's behavior
• Deepti Gupta as Dr. Eileen Shamsi, a senior attending and Victoria's mother
• Michael Hyatt as Gloria Underwood, the chief medical officer
• Jackson Kelly as David Saunders, Theresa's troubled teenaged son
• Krystel V. McNeil as Kiara Alfaro, the department social worker
• Alexandra Metz as Dr. Yolanda Garcia, a resident surgeon
• Drew Powell as Doug Driscoll, a patient who has been in the ER waiting room for hours
• Arun Storrs as Minu, a Nepali woman who was pushed onto the subway train tracks
• Brandon Keener as John Bradley, the father of a braindead teenager
• Ashley Romans as Joyce St. Claire, a woman with sickle cell disease
• Samantha Sloyan as Lily Bradley, the mother of a braindead teenager
• Mika Abdalla as Jenna, a college student who overdosed
• Abby Ryder Fortson as Kristi Wheeler, a pregnant teenager with an appointment for a medical abortion
• Marguerite Moreau as Lynette Wheeler, Kristi's aunt
• Tracy Vilar as Lupe Perez, the hospital's ward clerk
• Shu Lan Tuan as Ginger Kitajima, an elderly woman who fell
• Courtney Grosbeck as Piper Fisher, a patient with a controlling boss whom McKay suspects is a victim of sex trafficking
• Shani Atias as Laura Fisher, Piper's boss
• Robert Heaps as Chad Ashcroft, McKay's ex and Harrison's father
• Ayesha Harris as Dr. Parker Ellis, a night shift senior resident
• Ken Kirby as Dr. John Shen, the night shift senior attending
• Tedra Millan as Dr. Emery Walsh, a night shift surgeon

Guest

• Brad Dourif as Neil McKay, Cassie's father

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	Prod. code
1	"7:00 A.M."	John Wells	R. Scott Gemmill	January 9, 2025 (2025-01-09)	T76.10101
Attending Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch starts a shift at the Pitt, relieving struggling overnight attending Dr. Jack Abbot and welcoming residents Trinity Santos and Melissa "Mel" King and medical students Victoria Javadi, daughter of a surgeon at the hospital, and Dennis Whitaker. Charge nurse Dana Evans discovers that senior resident Heather Collins is pregnant. The team treats Minu, a non-English speaking woman with a degloved foot from being pushed onto subway tracks, alongside her rescuer. Javadi faints at the sight of the foot. Afterwards, her mother, Dr. Eileen Shamsi, embarrasses her by visiting. Hospital administrator Gloria Underwood warns Robby that the Pitt must improve its patient satisfaction scores. Resident Cassie McKay treats a triathlete suffering shortness of breath that goes into cardiac arrest. Mel and senior resident Frank Langdon examine lethargic child Tyler Jones, discovering that he ingested one of his father's cannabis gummies. Whitaker injures his finger in a patient transfer. Collins manages to determine that Minu speaks Nepali. McKay and Robby meet Theresa, a mother that made herself ill to get help for her son David after finding a list of girls he planned to harm. David flees before Robby and social worker Kiara can learn his intentions. Robby has a flashback of working during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2	"8:00 A.M."	Amanda Marsalis	R. Scott Gemmill	January 9, 2025 (2025-01-09)	T76.10102
The children of Mr. Spencer, an elderly man with Alzheimer suffering from pneumonia and sepsis, decide to override his advance directive and DNR order and pursue treatment that could cause him further pain. Langdon scolds Santos for treating a patient without having presented the case to a superior. Mel successfully does a cricothyrotomy on a patient with a Le Fort III fracture. Javadi discovers that McKay wears an ankle monitor while assisting in triage. A homeless man arrives with a coat full of rats that subsequently escape in the ER, to Gloria's despair. Mel, Langdon, and Kiara have to handle Tyler's angry mother and ensure the intervention of child services. Theresa tries to contact David. Resident Samira Mohan recognizes that Joyce, a patient in crippling pain, is not seeking drugs, but suffering from sickle cell disease. Surgical resident Yolanda Garcia trusts Santos to assist her in a fasciotomy. Javadi clashes with Santos. Collins wants to go to the ethics committee and overrule Mr. Spencer's children, but Robby says he doesn't have enough time. Robby struggles to inform the parents of teenager Nick Bradley that their son is brain-dead due to a fentanyl overdose. He prescribes unnecessary tests to allow them more time to process his death.
3	"9:00 A.M."	Damian Marcano	Joe Sachs & R. Scott Gemmill	January 16, 2025 (2025-01-16)	T76.10103
Javadi inquires about McKay's life. Whitaker struggles to process the death of Bennet Milton, a patient with whom he had connected. McKay and Javadi successfully treat Jenna, a patient experiencing an overdose after taking Xanax laced with fentanyl. Santos frustrates her colleagues with her brash and overconfident personality. Collins trusts Javadi to intubate a patient that has been shot in the chest with a nail gun. Mel and Langdon treat a patient with a STEMI and perform a cardioversion on a man addicted to vaping. Robby scolds Mohan over her excessive focus on individual patients, leading to a slow work pace; he encourages her to be more confident in herself and overcome her fear of making a mistake. Nick's father recognizes his friend Jenna and angrily accuses her of having given the fentanyl to Nick before being removed by security. McKay and Kiara tell Robby to get David back to the ER by any means necessary. Robby reads a letter written by Abbot to the sister of a dead veteran that he treated in the night shift. Mohan encourages Whitaker to face his fears. Someone steals one of the hospital's ambulances. Mr. Spencer's children agree to withdraw treatment to lessen his suffering and allow for a less traumatic death.
4	"10:00 A.M."	Amanda Marsalis	Noah Wyle	January 23, 2025 (2025-01-23)	T76.10104
Staff members place bets and follow updates on the stolen ambulance through the newscast. Robby extubates Mr. Spencer and comforts his children, suggesting that they perform a Hawaiian ritual, Ho'oponopono, taught to him by his mentor, Dr. Adamson. He has a flashback of Dr. Adamson's death in the Pitt during the pandemic. Mohan scolds Santos for her poor bedside manners with Jenna. Langdon also berates Santos when a patient almost dies after she ordered to use BPAP without first consulting a superior. Nurse Mateo Diaz experiences racist abuse from Doug Driscoll, a patient angry about the long time spent in the waiting room. Javadi sutures a patient's wound and corrects a misgendering error on her medical record. Mel and Mohan treat a baby with a hair tourniquet and diagnose a young teenager with an imperforate hymen, offering support to her single father. Dana, Whitaker and other nurses struggle to administer an injection to a psychotic patient, Mr. Krakozhia, waiting for a bed in the psychiatric department. Jenna apologizes to Nick's parents and explains that they took the unprescribed Xanax to fall asleep after having drunk a lot of coffee during a study session. Collins prepares to administer a medication abortion prescribed by Abbot to seventeen-year-old Kristi.
5	"11:00 A.M."	John Cameron	Simran Baidwan	January 30, 2025 (2025-01-30)	T76.10105
Santos argues with Langdon over patient Joseph Marino's treatment plan. She tries to report a faulty vial of lorazepam. Mohan and Robby coach Whitaker through his next patients. Jake, the son of Robby's ex-girlfriend with whom he has a familial bond, visits the Pitt to fetch two tickets for Pitt Fest from Robby. Collins's ultrasound measurements suggest that Kristi may be past the gestational limit for abortion, implying that Abbot may have falsified his data. Robby performs another ultrasound and records the gestational age as one day under the cutoff. McKay connects with Sherry, a struggling mother, by sharing her own life story. Mel tries to comfort Rita, the daughter of elderly patient Ginger Kitajima struggling with caregiver stress, and advises her to take a break. Rita goes to collect her car and does not return. Robby reprimands Mohan for her slowness. Javadi embarrasses Sherry with her insensible manners, making her flee. McKay scolds and confronts Javadi for her judgemental and nosy attitude. Langdon performs an impressive retrograde intubation guided by Robby, who later tells he has recommended him for a prestigious fellowship. Collins praises Mohan for her approach to patient care. Collins is about to administer the abortion medication when Kristi's mother arrives and forbids it.
6	"12:00 P.M."	Damian Marcano	Cynthia Adarkwa	February 6, 2025 (2025-02-06)	T76.10106
Collins discovers that Kristi's supposed mother, who had initially accompanied her, was her aunt. Gloria warns Robby that she will entrust the Pitt to a corporate management firm if patient satisfaction scores do not improve. Santos drops a scalpel that stabs Garcia's foot while treating patient Silas Dunn. Collins, Langdon, and Javadi treat two frat boys responsible for the ambulance's theft after they crash it. Robby praises Mohan for her attentiveness and reminds the team to watch for patient satisfaction scores. Javadi's mother's overbearing behavior embarrasses her. Kiara and Dana comfort Mel and encourage her to talk with Ginger about her daughter's disappearance. Robby confirms to Nick's parents that he is brain-dead and introduces them to family support specialist Emma, but his mother storms out when asked about her son's consent to organ donation. Collins starts getting excited about her pregnancy after witnessing a patient's close relationship with his mother. Santos and Langdon inform Joseph that he had neurocysticercosis. McKay suggests reporting David to law enforcement, but Robby disagrees. Mel calls her autistic sister Becca. Kristi locks herself in the bathroom and refuses to leave without the abortion medication. Kristi's mother and aunt fight, shoving Collins when she tries to intervene.
7	"1:00 P.M."	Silver Tree	Valerie Chu	February 13, 2025 (2025-02-13)	T76.10107
Robby complains to Gloria about overcrowding and understaffing. Mel's experience with her sister helps her connect with an autistic patient with an ankle sprain, with whom Langdon had struggled to communicate. Santos inquires after Langdon's suspicious behavior. Collins convinces Kristi's mother to let her get the abortion. Silas's wife confesses to Santos that she drugged him with progesterone to dull his sex drive, believing that he is molesting their daughter. Whitaker, Langdon, and Robby call in the ECMO team for assistance in treating a patient with a STEMI. Mohan and Javadi treat Nandi, a beauty influencer with suspected schizophrenia, but Mohan keeps investigating her symptoms. Minu's rescuer says he will give a statement to law enforcement. Santos unsuccessfully tries to get Silas's daughter to acknowledge the abuse. Robby reprimands Mohan for conducting unnecessary tests, while Collins encourages her. Mohan discovers that Nandi used a contaminated face cream that led to mercury poisoning. Robby has a flashback of Adamson being supported by ECMO. Collins and Robby argue over his treatment of Mohan and the staff. Robby and Kiara inform Silas's wife that they will report her to the police, to Santos's despair. Langdon praises Mel's skills. Santos threatens an incapacitated Silas. Collins suffers a miscarriage in the bathroom.
8	"2:00 P.M."	Amanda Marsalis	Joe Sachs	February 20, 2025 (2025-02-20)	T76.10108
Collins immediately returns to work. Santos investigates Langdon's handling of lorazepam and Librium that he prescribed to regular patient Louie Cloverfield. Rita returns to the ER, having fallen asleep in the car. A patient with a severed finger flirts with Collins. Langdon treats Willie Alexander, a patient with Twiddler's syndrome and a former paramedic with the Freedom House Ambulance Service. Mel and Kiara help Rita and Ginger access homecare services. The team fails to save Amber, a six-year-old drowning victim. Javadi impresses her mother by determining that one of her patients' symptoms were caused by a spider bite, rather than her Crohn's disease. Nick's parents agree to organ donation. Santos shares her concerns about Langdon with Garcia, who dismisses them. McKay believes Piper, a young woman with chlamydia, may be a victim of sex trafficking by her overly-controlling boss. Mohan supports Nandi in her recovery. McKay and Dana get Piper alone with an excuse and try to get her to confess. Mel struggles to prepare Bella, Amber's sister, to receive the news. Robby informs Willie of Adamson's death after he reveals they had worked together. The staff and Nick's friends and family hold an honor walk as he and his parents leave the hospital.
9	"3:00 P.M."	Quyen Tran	Noah Wyle	February 27, 2025 (2025-02-27)	T76.10109
Collins confides in Dana. Robby asks Dana about Collins's well being and tries to console the team after Amber's death. Two women are admitted after beginning a fight in the waiting room. McKay and Dana fail to get Piper to confess before she leaves. Santos and Mohan treat a patient seizing from an MDMA overdose without a superior's approval, enraging Langdon and causing him to launch into an aggressive and targeted verbal attack on Santos. Robby lectures Langdon on his behavior. Whitaker receives an apology from homeless patient Krakozhia, who had urinated on him during a psychotic episode. Langdon reassures Mel. Javadi becomes infatuated with Mateo. Doug complains to Dana about the long wait time, threatens staff, and leaves against medical advice. Two victims of a car crash are admitted, including Paula, a patient that had been seen by McKay earlier in the day. Collins, McKay, and Robby discover that Paula had blacked out while driving due to sepsis caused by endometritis. Whitaker decides to join the Pitt's "street team" to personally administer Mr. Krakozhia's medication. Collins suggests that McKay may have missed the septicemia in Paula's earlier exam due to fatphobia. Whitaker catches one of the rats. Doug punches Dana in the ambulance bay.
10	"4:00 P.M."	Damian Marcano	Simran Baidwan	March 6, 2025 (2025-03-06)	T76.10110
Law enforcement arrive to talk to Theresa. Robby treats Dana. Whitaker reassures the wife of a whole-body burn victim in critical condition, but Langdon has a pessimistic outlook on the patient's condition. McKay's son Harrison arrives at the ER alongside his father, her ex-partner Chad, who has been injured in a skateboarding accident. Robby chastises McKay for informing the police about David's possible intentions, but she remains convinced that she did the right thing. Gloria unsuccessfully tries to reassure the nursing team after Dana's assault. Tensions continue between Santos and Langdon, with Robby struggling to mediate. Javadi becomes angry with the father of a teenager who was hit in the eye by a baseball, feeling he is prioritizing his son's baseball career over his health concerns. Mel and Mohan speak about what it takes to be a doctor while treating a stroke victim with TNK. Chad's new girlfriend, Chloe, comes to the hospital despite having a restraining order against McKay. After Santos tells Robby her concerns about Langdon, Robby investigates his locker and finds several stolen doses. Livid, Robby sends Langdon home.
11	"5:00 P.M."	Quyen Tran	Elyssa Gershman	March 13, 2025 (2025-03-13)	T76.10111
Dana keeps working despite the injury. Robby asks her to conduct a pharmacy audit on Langdon and has a flashback. David posts worrying messages on Instagram. Collins and King help a surrogate mother with delivery and treat her when complications arise. After an initial disagreement, Whitaker and Mohan treat a man asking for morphine by giving him buprenorphine without his knowledge. McKay and Javadi treat a former drug addict with hepatitis B experiencing an esophageal bleeding by using a Sengstaken–Blakemore tube. Santos shares with Garcia and Robby her concerns about the repercussions of reporting Langdon, but Robby reassures her. Robby repeatedly refuses to answer phone calls from Langdon. Jake and his girlfriend Leah call Robby from Pitt Fest to thank him for the tickets. Collins opens up to Robby about her miscarriage and an abortion that she had kept secret. He tells her to go home and rest. McKay confronts Chloe over custody of her son. Robby and Kiara support Theresa's petition for David to be placed under a psychiatric hold. Dana tells Robby that she will quit. The team are informed that there is an active shooter at Pitt Fest.
12	"6:00 P.M."	Amanda Marsalis	Joe Sachs & R. Scott Gemmill	March 20, 2025 (2025-03-20)	T76.10112
Dana and Robby repeatedly call Jake without avail. Abbot starts his shift early along with senior resident Dr. Parker Ellis, attending Dr. John Shen, and surgeon Dr. Emery Walsh. Shamsi, Garcia, and doctors from other departments assist the ER. The hospital activates its mass casualty incident protocols to deal with the influx of patients from the shooting. Abbot, Shen, Walsh, and Dana act as primary supervisors for emergency, triage, surgery, and nursing personnel, respectively. All the people in the waiting room are dismissed. Abbot, Mohan, and Robby are assigned to critical patients; McKay and Javadi to patients that will die within an hour if left untreated; Mel, Whitaker, and Santos to patients with extremity wounds. Mel discovers a liver laceration in Sylvia, a patient with a broken leg. Langdon returns to help. Chad and Harrison wait in the lounge. Santos catches a journalist that faked an injury to enter the ER. The team begins to run out of supplies. Mel donates her blood to Sylvia, inspiring other doctors to donate their own. Javadi surprises her mother by improvising a substitute chest tube. Law enforcement inform the team that the shooter might head their way. David's phone is traced to the area of the shooting. After an hour, patients continue to arrive steadily.
13	"7:00 P.M."	Damian Marcano	Joe Sachs & R. Scott Gemmill	March 27, 2025 (2025-03-27)	T76.10113
Whole blood supplies arrive by helicopter. The staff continues to use unorthodox procedures and equipment to treat patients. Intraosseous infusion drills see many uses: Whitaker erroneously uses one to administer medication to a conscious patient; Mohan uses one to relieve a patient's high intracranial pressure; and McKay uses it to disable her ankle monitor's distracting alarm sound. Kiara and ward clerk Lupe photograph the dead in order to identify them and notify their families. A patient tries to reach for his gun, causing fleeting panic in the staff before falling unconscious. Mel and Whitaker struggle to find equipment to treat a patient. Kiara and Lupe inform Whitney Rivera that her husband died; she asks about her brother, who is missing. Jake arrives with Leah in critical condition. Robby uses several liters of blood to treat Leah despite Abbot's protests, but he fails to save her. Jake blames Robby for her death. Santos performs an unsupervised REBOA to stop a patient's bleeding. Abbot scolds her for her rashness but praises her for the procedure's success. Law enforcement arrest David upon his return to the Pitt. Robby accompanies Jake to view Leah's body and has a panic attack, feeling overwhelmed by grief and guilt over Leah, Adamson, and other dead patients.
14	"8:00 P.M."	John Cameron	Simran Baidwan	April 3, 2025 (2025-04-03)	T76.10114
The team searches for Robby; Whitaker finds him and reminds him of his responsibilities. Robby returns to work but acts short-tempered with his patients and colleagues. The Pitt begins to transition back to normal operations. McKay's father arrives to bring Harrison home. Langdon and Santos struggle to collaborate when treating Max, a patient suffering due to an overdose. Rivera's brother arrives to the ER, having developed an air embolism while helping other victims at the festival. Ignoring Walsh's objections, Mohan performs a risky procedure to save him, guided by Abbot. The shooter is reported dead. The team began treating Flynn, an unresponsive minor with measles and possible acute disseminated encephalomyelitis; Robby reports a potential outbreak to the Public Health Service. The police release David, but he is still placed on a 72-hour psychiatric hold, leading him to clash with his mother, Robby, and McKay. Jake's mother arrives to see him. Mel reunites a traumatized patient with her daughter, causing her to break down in tears. Robby becomes enraged with Flynn's mother, who is refusing to allow a lumbar puncture after having read alarmist health information on the Internet. Abbot asks Dana about Robby's well being. The police arrest McKay for destroying her ankle monitor.
15	"9:00 P.M."	John Wells	R. Scott Gemmill	April 10, 2025 (2025-04-10)	T76.10115
Robby talks the police into releasing McKay, citing her heroic work that day. Santos deduces that Max attempted suicide and opens up to him about a friend who killed herself. McKay attempts to persuade David to accept counseling. Langdon begs Robby for a second chance, but the conversation devolves into an argument. A hospital employee is admitted with a crushed pelvis; Robby has difficulty focusing on his treatment. Robby guilt-trips Flynn's father into allowing the lumbar puncture without his wife's knowledge by showing him the bodies of PittFest victims. Mohan's manic energy wears off, and she cries in the bathroom. Robby gives a speech thanking the day-shift staff and dismisses them. Dana takes down photos from her desk, contemplating not returning to the Pitt. King picks up her sister at a care facility. Santos discovers Whitaker is homeless and squatting in a room in the hospital, so she invites him to live in her apartment. Abbot finds Robby at the edge of the hospital roof and emotionally exhorts him not to feel like a failure; the two then join several other doctors and nurses for a beer in the park before Robby finally heads home.

Production

Development

From the 1990s, actor Noah Wyle and television producers R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells worked together on the set of the medical drama television series ER, which aired from 1994 to 2009. ER became successful throughout its run, influencing subsequent medical drama series. After its end, Gemmill and Wyle purposefully pursued projects unrelated to the genre, with Gemmill saying he thought he "would never do a medical show again, because we had done it so well". In 2020, Wyle began receiving an influx of direct messages on Instagram and fan mail from first responders working in the healthcare system, thanking him for inspiring them to pursue emergency medicine, with his role as Dr. John Carter in ER, and talking about their struggles during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Wyle shared many of the messages with Wells, with whom he thought he could make a television series dealing with the contemporary challenges faced by healthcare workers and the spread of health misinformation. Meanwhile, Gemmill began thinking about possibilities to innovate the genre of the medical drama after having a conversation with a fellow television writer. Gemmill, Wells, and Wyle kept in contact with each other and with other ER collaborators, such as television writer and ER doctor Joe Sachs, who shared his experiences in the healthcare system.

Over the next few years, Gemmill, Wells, and Wyle began sharing their ideas and developing an ER spin-off focused on Carter, also recruiting Sachs and other ER collaborators such as Mel Herbert. However, Warner Bros. Television could not come to an agreement with the estate of ER creator Michael Crichton, overseen by his widow, Sherri Alexander Crichton, leading to the project being abandoned. Nevertheless, Max, a streaming service affiliated with Warner Bros. Discovery, expressed their interest in making a medical drama series starring Wyle with the team. At the time, Max CEO Casey Bloys was searching for a network-style procedural drama that could keep audiences engaged for several weeks. Additionally, he sought to expand the service's library with original releases and define the characteristics of a "Max Original", as opposed to the HBO series that Max also offers. The team began developing The Pitt after the end of the Writers Guild of America's strike in the fall of 2023. After switching to Max, Gemmill initially thought of adopting the narrative device of real time, following a twelve-hour shift at the hospital, due to the time constraints of direct-to-stream series, which are usually afforded a maximum of twelve episodes. Instead, Bloys suggested doing fifteen episodes, wanting to reduce the wait time in between seasons and avoid it feeling "like an extension of a streaming show".

In March 2024, Max gave the production a fifteen-episode straight-to-series order for The Pitt, overseen by John Wells Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Each episode had a reported budget of over US$4 million dollars. Bloys explained that the lower per-episode budget made it possible to order more episodes than is typical for streaming services. Gemmill, Wells, and Wyle are the executive producers along with Simran Baidwan, Michael Hissrich, and Erin Jontow. Credited as The Pitt's creator, Gemmill wrote the pilot episode and serves as the series' showrunner. In February 2025, Max ordered a second season of The Pitt. Scheduled for release in January 2026, the season will chronicle a shift in the ER on Independence Day—Langdon's first day at work after going to an inpatient rehabilitation facility. Wyle explained their choice, saying: "The biggest driver of [the Season 2 time jump is] Langdon … Nine, basically 10 months later, gives a lot of room for us to have developed a few stories in the interim and catch up with everyone. And with it being Langdon's first day back, we get to catch up as he catches up with all those people."

Set design and practical effects

To design The Pitt's sets, Wells approached production designer Nina Ruscio, with whom he had previously worked on Shameless (2011–2021) and Animal Kingdom (2016–2022). Ruscio had already committed to other productions, but agreed to Wells' request to provide an initial blueprint of The Pitt's main set, the ER; the writers used it to track the development of the characters' storylines across space hour by hour, before even beginning to work on the script. Ultimately, Ruscio managed to join the production and met with Gemmill, Hissrich, Wells, and Wyle to discuss the details. The team informed her of their plan to shoot in continuity with handheld cameras, therefore requiring a set with capacity for freedom of movement. They decided to set the ER on the East Coast of the United States around 2010—the year of the latest remodel of the fictional hospital. Ruscio planned to create a transparent space with full visibility from all angles to allow for filming of simultaneous foreground and background action. She researched hospital designs with the help of Sachs and visited several ERs to create a functional set without the guidance of a script—a first for Ruscio and an uncommon approach in the television industry. She found particularly inspiring the designs of the firm Huddy Healthcare Solutions.

A team of about 125 people built the 25-bed ER, occupying over 20,000 square feet (1,900 m²), on a sound stage owned by Warner Bros. in Burbank, California, in ten weeks. The waiting room and the trauma center were built on another sound stage next to the ER. The overall set cost over $4 million. Ruscio focused on five main aspects of the set: the palette, the floor, the lighting, the ceiling, and the layout. For the color palette and the lighting, she worked with The Pitt's cinematographer Johanna Coelho. Ruscio said she selected a realistic, blanched palette to convey the sterile feeling of entering an ER. Ruscio and Coelho then did a camera test to select the final fifty shades of white that worked best with the widest range of skin tones and with the LED light system that would be used. Moreover, Ruscio incorporated other tones: cream, gray, and blue for the floors; wood for the walls; and occasionally gray, yellow, and black, which are Pittsburgh's colors. For the light system, Ruscio and Coelho created custom, adjustable bi-color LED strips that make up an integrated ceiling rig of 300 lighting cues along with warmer overhead practical lights that provide contrast. The combined use of the top lighting, the white palette of the setting, and the darker palette of the wardrobe served to make the actors stand out and highlight both foreground and background action.

Additional scenes from the series were shot at Allegheny General Hospital.

For the layout, Ruscio collaborated with art director Josh Lusby, set designer Dean Wolcott, set decorator Matt Callahan, and prop master Rick Ladomade. She envisioned what she defines a "cup and curve" layout of the set, with curvilinear floors and ceilings that guide the eye of the viewer and allow freedom of movement while filming. Ruscio designed each set element with Lusby and Wolcott, paying attention to the ergonomics of an ER. Ruscio incorporated in the set architectural references to Pittsburgh, in particular to Allegheny General Hospital, which was selected as the exterior of the fictional hospital. She used marble columns to figuratively convey how the Pitt—seen as the hospital's "basement"—both supports the structure and bears its burdens. Callahan and Ladomade reached out to medical equipment manufacturers to furnish the facility, striving to replicate the precise layout of a real medical facility. The team personally designed and built the nurses' station. To portray accurately the medical procedures, The Pitt uses almost exclusively practical effects with few modifications in post-production. The team collaborated with special effects company Autonomous FX to create several of the prosthetics featured in the series.

Writing

Baidwan, Gemmill, Sachs, and Wyle constituted a writers' room by December 2023, along with Cynthia Adarkwa, Valerie Chu, and Elyssa Gershman. The team collaborated extensively on developing narratively and spatially the continuous structure of The Pitt, by storyboarding and tracking each patient's journey along with the background action happening in the ER. Sachs described the process of writing an episode: each writer would prepare an outline for specific episodes usually consisting of a maximum of two lines for each scene; review them with the staff; consult with medical experts for information on technical dialogue; write a first draft; review the draft with the team after two weeks; and keep rewriting drafts until it could go to production. Sachs and Gemmill stated that the writers started by defining the main characters' arcs and later established which medical case best fit their journey and illustrated their qualities in a brief period of time. By using real-time narration, Gemmill sought to highlight the importance of time, which he believed set emergency medicine apart from other medical specialties. Sachs said that the writers used the narrative device to build suspense by extending some patients' storylines across multiple episodes while suddenly ending others. After writing the episodes, the staff consulted with Wells on both writing and production.

The team reunited in the writers' room in March 2025 for the second season; Herbert joined the writing staff for the first time.

Casting

Wyle took active part in the casting process along with casting director Cathy Sandrich Gelfond, aiming to recreate with the new ensemble the camaraderie that he had shared with the ER cast. He wrote a mission statement for prospective actors, which declared: "This is a very specific type of show. It's intense. It's fast-paced. It's like theater. We are a group of players. If you can be a team player who is ready to lock in with a family, then this is the place for you." Additionally, Wyle emphasized the physicality of the roles and the preference for actors with experience working in theater and handling props. Due to the continuous structure of the series, the casting call for extras asked for actors with open availability for seven months, instead of the few days usually requested in other television productions. For the series regulars, The Pitt advertised in the casting call a two-tier fixed salary system, with per-episode fees of $50,000 and $35,000 depending on the role.

In July 2024, Tracy Ifeachor, Patrick Ball, Supriya Ganesh, Fiona Dourif, Taylor Dearden, Isa Briones, Gerran Howell, Shabana Azeez, and Katherine LaNasa were announced to have joined the cast as series regulars. In August 2024, Shawn Hatosy, Michael Hyatt, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Brandon Mendez Homer, Kristin Villanueva, Amielynn Abellera, Alexandra Metz, Krystel V. McNeil, and Deepti Gupta were announced to have been cast in recurring roles. Before the start of production, the cast spent two weeks with three ER doctors learning various medical techniques, such as suturing, intubation, medical ultrasonography, and CPR; extras also received medical training. In May 2025, the casting process for the second season began. The boot camp for the second season will begin on June 1, 2025.

Sound design and music

Instead of a score, we hear the whirring of an ECMO machine, gurneys wheeling around corners, joints being popped back into place, eye sockets being drained of blood, EKG machines bleep-blooping, ankle monitor alarms going off, or the distant keening wails of a grieving mother. This is the real score of The Pitt.
— Jeremy D. Larson, Nothing Sounds as Good as The Pitt,

Before writing the script, Gemmill, Wells, and Wyle decided to use almost no soundtrack music in The Pitt to complement its documentary style. Instead, Gemmill, Sachs, and Wells focused on creating a faithful sound design that could directly convey the emotional cues usually imbued in the music and set the pace of the scenes. It involved recording and layering the main dialogue, background conversations, and machinery sounds. The team used the sound of medical procedures and the dialogue itself to dictate the rhythm, relying on the varying intensity of the actors' delivery of medical jargon to relay emotional cues. For the background, Sachs recorded the discussions of real-life ER nurses and gave them to extras to register. Nevertheless, The Pitt employed some musical motifs and drones composed by Gavin Brivik intended to blur the line between diegetic and non-diegetic music. The team asked Brivik to create an imperceptible score to occasionally increase the tension throughout the series. Additionally, they meant to capture the sensation of Robby's tinnitus at times.

Instead of using an opening theme, each episode of The Pitt starts with a simple title card stating what hour of the shift it covers. The series has an instrumental closing song, "Fail Forward", written by Brivik and singer-songwriter Taji with the aim of expressing Robby's feelings and giving the viewers a moment to reflect on the episode. The vocal version of "Fail Forward" played in the thirteenth episode. Three other songs were featured in the first season: "Baby" by Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise, "Funky Music Sho' 'Nuff Turns Me On" by Edwin Starr, and "Savage" by Megan Thee Stallion.

Editing

Mark Strand, Joey Reinisch, Lauren Pendergrass, and Annie Eifrig served as editors on The Pitt. Strand and Eifrig had already worked with Wells on Animal Kingdom and Maid (2021), respectively. Reinisch and Pendergrass were recommended by members of the production team and interviewed for the job; Reinisch had already worked on projects developed by John Wells Productions. The production team wanted to distinguish The Pitt from other medical dramas. In particular, Strand said that Wyle referenced the 2023 film The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer and its continuous motion through space and time. Reinisch stated that he avoided watching medical dramas through the process to not be influenced. Having joined the production later on, Pendergrass and Eifrig said that they followed the editing style established by Strand with the pilot episode, which was "aggressively off-camera". Strand wanted to highlight the emotional reactions of the characters rather than the medical jargon and procedures, describing the style as "medical off-camera, drama or emotion on-camera". The script allowed the editors to introduce characters progressively, first focusing on Robby and few others and then broadening to the full cast.

The editing team had some concerns at first. Pendergrass worried about mismatching scenes due to the large scope of the set and the amount of background action, but shooting in continuity minimized the issue. Reinisch remarked that the synchronized play-like background action allowed them to focus on the story, instead of having to resolve continuity issues. Strand and Pendergrass added that they did not order the sequences in exact chronological order, having some scenes that were happening simultaneously arranged differently. Strand worried that the real-time format would not allow them to build tension by frequently jump cutting through different scenes, but found that the script managed to maintain it while moving characters through space. Regarding the style, the production team invited the editors to use documentary-like "dirty cuts" to convey a sense of realism. Reinisch said he used "messy" frames to change the pace, facilitated by not having to match a score to the scenes.

For the action scenes, Strand and the team worked on balancing choreography, camerawork, and actor-blocking to best communicate the sense of continuous motion. Pendergrass and Reinisch found that the camerawork allowed the viewer to become familiar with the characters within the action scenes themselves by focusing on their expressions and reactions, making for an "economic storytelling". For the emotional scenes, Strand noted that they did not have to exceedingly slow down the pace to convey the pathos, due to the fast pace of action scenes providing contrast. Eifrig said that Wells directed them to cut down on emotional scenes to avoid exhausting the audience with excessive sentimentality. Sachs reviewed the sequences for medical accuracy and monitored background action. For the pilot episode, Strand also consulted with Tim Van Pelt and Ambar Martinez, real-life nurses that appeared in the series.

Release

Bloys wanted to promote The Pitt by applying a network-style marketing strategy. He chose to use the model of appointment television, having the episodes be released each week on the same day at the same hour during prime time instead of launching them in the middle of the night—a standard practice for streaming services. The first two episodes of The Pitt premiered on Max at 9 p.m. on January 9, 2025, followed by a weekly release of the remaining thirteen episodes until April 10, 2025. Each episode runs for 41 to 61 minutes. The first episode of the series was screened for healthcare and emergency medical services (EMS) providers at Allegheny General Hospital on January 10, 2025, followed by a discussion via video conference with Hissrich and Wyle. Max reported that The Pitt's premiere became one of the five most-watched Max series debuts. Bloys said the series will possibly be broadcast on cable network TNT, owned by Warner Bros., ahead of the release of the second season. It is scheduled to be broadcast on TNT in the fall of 2025.

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 95% approval rating with an average rating of 8.45/10, based on 75 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Setting the trials and tribulations of hospital life on a timer, The Pitt combines multiple tried-and-true formulas to create a bracingly fresh medical drama." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 76 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Phillip Maciak of The New Republic praised the contrasting pacing of the show's plotlines. Reviewing the series for Chicago Tribune, Nina Metz gave a rating of 3.5/4 and wrote, "From a viewer's perspective, if you've seen one hospital drama, you've seen them all. What distinguishes one show from another is whether the writing and casting is any good. And The Pitt lands enough on both fronts to make it essential viewing." Linda Holmes of NPR described it as "a very sharp season of television with outstanding performances across the board." Brian Farvour of The Playlist gave the series an A+ and said, "The Pitt stands out entirely independently, separate from its pseudo-ancestor in "ER" and as a bonafide triumph in storytelling, chemistry and television. David Sims of The Atlantic commented, "It's already without question the finest example of the genre in more than a generation."

Medical community response

My team's work life is reflected onscreen, and watching the show evokes powerful emotions—at times, it feels as if the entire health care system rests on the shoulders of this small group of doctors and nurses. The show offers audiences a raw glimpse into a health care system on the brink.
— Dr. Nicholas Cozzi, Why Watching The Pitt Feels So Cathartic for ER Doctors Like Me,

The Pitt has received praise from the medical community for its accurate and comprehensive depiction of the challenges faced by workers in the American healthcare system. Several healthcare professionals found certain scenes triggering and difficult to watch for their realistic approach. In particular, they referenced the flashbacks to the pandemic and a scene where the cries of a grieving mother are heard throughout the ER. Some members of EMS said the series led them to confront the emotional weight of their profession. Other professionals have enjoyed watching The Pitt with their families to show them their daily routines, since physicians are not allowed to have family members visit them at work due to HIPAA and patient confidentiality rules. Dr. Nicholas Cozzi, director of EMS at Rush University Medical Center, felt moved by its sympathetic portrayal of doctors trying to work in "a system that is unwell itself—stretched thin, underfunded, and unable to keep pace". Healthcare workers in Canada have also found The Pitt accurate and relatable despite systemic differences.

Several physicians have described the technical scenes as mostly realistic, but they focused on how The Pitt manages to capture the frenetic atmosphere of hospitals and touch on issues such as nursing shortages, insufficient resources, violence against healthcare professionals, health misinformation, and their consequent psychological impact on workers. Amanda Choflet, dean of Northeastern University School of Nursing, appreciated the series' inclusion of themes related to mental health and substance abuse issues in healthcare providers. Dr. Lukas Ramcharran, an attending physician and assistant professor in the department of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said that the character of Robby represented correctly the life of an attending physician at a teaching hospital, balancing the education of residents with the practice of medicine. Angela Hosking, dean of Northeastern University's Charlotte campus, appreciated the series' portrayal of the ER nurses' level of expertise and alertness, criticizing other medical series' tendency to show nurses as "glorified assistants". Dr. Lois K. Lee, an associate professor of pediatrics in the department of emergency medicine at Boston Children's Hospital, described as fairly accurate the implementation of MCI protocols, having herself experienced them during the bombing at the Boston Marathon in 2013. Ramcharran and Lee appreciated the use of real-time narration, saying that the format allowed the writers to explore a wide range of human emotions and experiences while keeping the focus on the events inside of the ER.

Nevertheless, healthcare workers have criticized aspects of The Pitt: the improbable high amount of complex trauma cases presented in a single shift; the incorrect depiction of CPR, which would look "much more violent" in real life; and the unrealistically rapid resolution of intricate cases. Sachs has stated that CPR could not be always done correctly in the series because it can't be performed on an actor. Some physicians noted that they spend a lot more time filling medical records in real life. Ramcharran found the portrayal of hospital administrators inaccurate, saying: "The idea of an administrator coming down in the actual shift and engaging with you in real time.. that's not realistic. You can imagine how that would be an incredible disruption to patient care." He thought that tension over systemic issues such as patient satisfaction and hospital incentives would not result in interpersonal conflict, but he understood "why they do that for the show".

Awards and nominations

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Nominee(s)/recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
Gotham TV Awards	June 2, 2025	Breakthrough Drama Series	R. Scott Gemmill, Simran Baidwan, Michael Hissrich, Erin Jontow, John Wells, and Noah Wyle	Pending
		Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama Series	Noah Wyle	Pending
		Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Drama Series	Katherine LaNasa	Pending
Astra TV Awards	June 10, 2025	Best Actor in a Drama Series	Noah Wyle	Pending
		Best Cast Ensemble in a Streaming Drama Series	The Pitt	Pending
		Best Directing in a Drama Series	John Wells (for "7:00 A.M.")	Pending
		Best Drama Series	The Pitt	Pending
		Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series	Taylor Dearden	Pending
		Best Writing in a Drama Series	Joe Sachs and R. Scott Gemmill (for "7:00 P.M.")	Pending

Lawsuit

In August 2024, the estate of Crichton, led by his widow, sued Warner Bros. Television, Gemmill, Wells, and Wyle over breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and intentional interference with contractual relations, claiming that The Pitt was a reworking of a planned ER reboot that the estate had not approved. Additionally, Crichton's widow alleged that Warner Bros. Television had already tried to eliminate Crichton's name from their projects by refusing to credit him as creator on the television series Westworld (2016–2022). In November 2024, Warner Bros. Television's lawyers filed for a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that The Pitt is "a completely different show". In April 2025, Wyle stated that they "pivoted as far in the opposite direction as we could in order to tell the story we wanted to tell — and not for litigious reasons, but because we didn't want to retread our own creative work", after knowing that they could not produce a reboot.

External links

• The Pitt at IMDb