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 R. Scott Gemmill Productions Warner Bros. Television
Original release
Network	Max
Release	January 9 (2025-01-09) – April 10, 2025 (2025-04-10)
Network	HBO Max

The Pitt is an Americanmedicalprocedural drama television series created byR. Scott Gemmill, and executive produced byJohn Wells andNoah Wyle. It is Gemmill, Wells and Wyle's second collaboration, having previously worked together onER. It stars Wyle,Tracy Ifeachor,Patrick Ball,Katherine LaNasa,Supriya Ganesh,Fiona Dourif,Taylor Dearden,Isa Briones,Gerran Howell, andShabana Azeez. The series follows emergency department staff as they attempt to overcome the hardships of a single 15-hour work shift at the fictionalPittsburgh Trauma Medical Center all while having to navigate staff shortages and underfunding. Each episode of the season covers approximately one hour of the work shift.

The Pitt premiered onMax (later rebranded asHBO Max) on January 9, 2025.^[1][2] The series has received acclaim from critics. The series has also been praised by themedical community for its accuracy, realistic portrayal of healthcare workers, and addressing the psychological challenges faced in apost-pandemic world. The series received several accolades with the first season receiving 13 nominations at the77th Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five includingOutstanding Drama Series,Casting, and acting wins for Wyle, LaNasa and recurring guest starShawn Hatosy. At the41st Television Critics Association Awards, the series won in four categories includingProgram of the Year andIndividual Achievement in Drama for Wyle.The Pitt was renewed for a second season in February 2025 and is slated to premiere on January 8, 2026.^[3][4]

Attending physician Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch starts a grueling shift at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center'semergency 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, anintern; and Dr. Melissa "Mel" King, a second-yearresident. 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, includingcharge 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 theCOVID-19 pandemic.

• Noah Wyle as Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, a seniorattending physician who is still reeling from his traumatic experiences during theCOVID-19 pandemic
• Tracy Ifeachor as Dr. Heather Collins (season 1),^[5] a seniorresident who clashes with Robby
• Patrick Ball as Dr. Frank Langdon, a senior resident and Robby's right hand
• Katherine LaNasa as Dana Evans, thecharge nurse with decades of experience in the ER
• Supriya Ganesh as Dr. Samira Mohan, a third-year medical resident trying to find balance between diligence and speed
• 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, aneurodivergent^[6][7] second-year resident new to the ER
• Isa Briones as Dr. Trinity Santos, a cocky and ambitiousfirst-year resident
• Gerran Howell as Dennis Whitaker, a fourth-yearmedical student who lacks confidence
• Shabana Azeez as Victoria Javadi, a brilliant 20-year-old third-year medical student whose parents both work at the hospital as well-known, respected doctors
• Sepideh Moafi as Dr. Al-Hashimi (season 2),^[8][9] a new attending physician at the Pitt who previously worked at a VA hospital with Mel and Samira

• Shawn Hatosy^[a] as Dr. Jack Abbot,^[11] a night shift attending physician and old friend of Robby's^[12]
• 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'sward clerk
• Shu Lan Tuan as Ginger Kitajima, an elderly woman who fell
• Courtney Grosbeck as Piper Fisher, a patient with a controlling boss
• 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
• Charles Baker as Troy (season 2)^[13]
• Irene Choi as Joy (season 2)^[13]
• Laëtitia Hollard as Emma (season 2)^[13]
• Lucas Iverson as James (season 2)^[13]
• Lawrence Robinson as Brian Hancock (season 2)^[14]
• Zack Morris as Jackson Davis (season 2)^[15]

• Brad Dourif as Neil McKay, Cassie's father^[16]
• Victor Rivas Rivers as Trent Norris (season 2), the chief executive officer of the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center^[17]

From the 1990s, actorNoah Wyle and television producersR. Scott Gemmill andJohn Wells worked together on the set of themedical drama television seriesER, which aired from 1994 to 2009.^[19][20]ER became successful throughout its run, influencing subsequent medical drama series.^[20] 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".^[19][21] In 2020, Wyle began receiving an influx ofdirect messages onInstagram andfan mail fromfirst responders working in the healthcare system, thanking him for inspiring them to pursueemergency medicine, with his role as Dr.John Carter inER, and talking about their struggles during the ongoingCOVID-19 pandemic.^[19][21] 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.^[19][21] Meanwhile, Gemmill began thinking about possibilities to innovate the genre of the medical drama after having a conversation with a fellow television writer.^[21] Gemmill, Wells, and Wyle kept in contact with each other and with otherER collaborators, such as television writer and ER doctorJoe Sachs, who shared his experiences in the healthcare system.^[21]

Over the next few years, Gemmill, Wells, and Wyle began sharing their ideas and developing anER spin-off focused on Carter,^[19][21] also recruiting Sachs and otherER collaborators such as Mel Herbert.^[22][23] However,Warner Bros. Television could not come to an agreement with theestate ofER creatorMichael Crichton, overseen by his widow, Sherri Alexander Crichton, leading to the project being abandoned.^[19] Nevertheless,Max, a streaming service affiliated withWarner Bros. Discovery, expressed their interest in making a medical drama series starring Wyle with the team.^[19][24] At the time, Max CEO Casey Bloys was searching for a network-styleprocedural drama that could keep audiences engaged for several weeks.^[24] Additionally, he sought to expand the service's library with original releases and define the characteristics of a "Max Original", as opposed to theHBO series that Max also offers.^[24] The team began developingThe Pitt after the end of theWriters Guild of America's strike in the fall of 2023.^[19] After switching to Max, Gemmill initially thought of adopting the narrative device ofreal time, following a twelve-hour shift at the hospital, due to the time constraints ofdirect-to-stream series, which are usually afforded a maximum of twelve episodes.^[23] 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".^[24]

In March 2024, Max gave the production a fifteen-episode straight-to-series order forThe Pitt, overseen byJohn Wells Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.^[1][3] Each episode had a reported budget ofUS$4 million toUS$6 million dollars.^[25][24][26] Bloys explained that the lower per-episode budget made it possible to order more episodes than is typical for streaming services.^[24] Gemmill, Wells, and Wyle are theexecutive producers along with Simran Baidwan, Michael Hissrich, and Erin Jontow.^[1] Credited asThe Pitt's creator,^[23] Gemmill wrote the pilot episode and serves as the series'showrunner.^[1] In February 2025, Max ordered a second season ofThe Pitt.^[3] The season will chronicle a shift in the ER onIndependence Day—Langdon's first day at work after going to aninpatient rehabilitation facility.^[27][28][29] 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."^[29]

To designThe Pitt'ssets, Wells approachedproduction designer Nina Ruscio, with whom he had previously worked onShameless (2011–2021) andAnimal Kingdom (2016–2022).^[30] Ruscio had already committed to other productions, but agreed to Wells' request to provide an initial blueprint ofThe 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.^[30][31] Ultimately, Ruscio managed to join the production and met with Gemmill, Hissrich, Wells, and Wyle to discuss the details.^[30][31] The team informed her of their plan to shoot in continuity withhandheld cameras, therefore requiring a set with capacity for freedom of movement.^[30][32] They decided to set the ER on theEast Coast of the United States around 2010—the year of the latest remodel of the fictional hospital.^[31][32] Ruscio planned to create a transparent space with full visibility from all angles to allow for filming of simultaneous foreground and background action.^[30][31][25] 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.^[31][33][34] She found particularly inspiring the designs of the firm Huddy Healthcare Solutions.^[31]

A team of about 125 people built the 25-bed ER, occupying over 20,000 square feet (1,900 m²), on asound stage owned by Warner Bros. inBurbank, California, in ten weeks.^[31][35] The waiting room and thetrauma center were built on another sound stage next to the ER.^[33] The overall set cost over $4 million.^[25] Ruscio focused on five main aspects of the set: the palette, the floor, the lighting, the ceiling, and the layout.^[31] For the color palette and the lighting, she worked withThe Pitt'scinematographer Johanna Coelho.^[30] Ruscio said she selected a realistic, blanched palette to convey the sterile feeling of entering an ER.^[30][32] 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 theLED light system that would be used.^[30][36] Moreover, Ruscio incorporated othertones: cream, gray, and blue for the floors; wood for the walls; and occasionally gray, yellow, and black, which are Pittsburgh's colors.^[30][32] For the light system, Ruscio and Coelho created custom, adjustable bi-color LED strips that made up an integrated ceiling rig of 300 lighting cues along with warmer overhead practical lights that provide contrast.^[36] 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.^[30] Lyn Paolo served as costume designer.^[37]

For the layout, Ruscio collaborated withart director Josh Lusby,set designer Dean Wolcott,set decorator Matt Callahan, andprop master Rick Ladomade.^[31] 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.^[31][33] Ruscio designed each set element with Lusby and Wolcott, paying attention to theergonomics of an ER.^[31] Ruscio incorporated in the set architectural references to Pittsburgh, in particular toAllegheny General Hospital, which was selected as the exterior of the fictional hospital.^[31] She used marble columns to figuratively convey how the Pitt—seen as the hospital's "basement"—both supports the structure and bears its burdens.^[31] Callahan and Ladomade reached out to medical equipment manufacturers to furnish the facility, striving to replicate the precise layout of a real medical facility.^[33] The team personally designed and built thenurses' station.^[33] To portray accurately the medical procedures,The Pitt uses almost exclusivelypractical effects with few modifications in post-production.^[39] The team collaborated with special effects company Autonomous FX to create several of theprosthetics featured in the series.^[40]

Filming for the second season began in Los Angeles on June 16, 2025.^[41]

Baidwan, Gemmill, Sachs, and Wyle constituted awriters' room by December 2023, along with Cynthia Adarkwa, Valerie Chu, and Elyssa Gershman.^[42][43] The team collaborated extensively on developing narratively and spatially the continuous structure ofThe Pitt, bystoryboarding and tracking each patient's journey along with the background action happening in the ER.^[21][43] 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.^[23] 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.^[23] By using real-time narration, Gemmill sought to highlight the importance of time, which he believed set emergency medicine apart from other medical specialties.^[23] Sachs said that the writers used the narrative device to build suspense by extending some patients' storylines across multiple episodes while suddenly ending others.^[23] After writing the episodes, the staff consulted with Wells on both writing and production.^[43]

The team reunited in the writers' room in March 2025 for the second season; Herbert joined the writing staff for the first time.^[43][19][23] Wyle will write four episodes in the second season, having written two for the first. He will additionally direct an episode.^[44] In August 2025, it was announced thatShawn Hatosy, who plays a recurring role as Dr. Jack Abbot, is set to direct an episode for the second season.^[45]

Wyle took active part in the casting process along with casting director Cathy Sandrich Gelfond,^[21] aiming to recreate with the new ensemble the camaraderie that he had shared with theER cast.^[19] He wrote amission 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."^[19] Additionally, Wyle emphasized the physicality of the roles and the preference for actors with experience working in theater and handling props.^[21][46] Due to the continuous structure of the series, thecasting call forextras asked for actors with open availability for seven months, instead of the few days usually requested in other television productions.^[47] 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.^[26]

In July 2024,Tracy Ifeachor,Patrick Ball,Supriya Ganesh,Fiona Dourif,Taylor Dearden,Isa Briones,Gerran Howell,Shabana Azeez, andKatherine LaNasa were announced to have joined the cast as series regulars.^[48] 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.^[10] Before the start of production, the cast spent two weeks with three ER doctors learning various medical techniques, such assuturing,intubation,medical ultrasonography, andCPR;^[49][50] extras also received medical training.^[47] In May 2025, the casting process for the second season began.^[51] Theboot camp for the second season began on June 1, 2025.^[52] In June 2025,Charles Baker, Irene Choi, Laëtitia Hollard, and Lucas Iverson were cast in recurring capacities whileSepideh Moafi was cast as a new series regular for the second season.^[13][8] In July 2025, it was reported that Ifeachor exited the series.^[5] In the same month, Lawrence Robinson joined the cast in a recurring role for the second season.^[14] In August 2025,Zack Morris was cast in a recurring capacity.^[15] In September 2025, Victor Rivas Rivers joined the cast as a guest star for the second season.^[17]

Instead of a score, we hear the whirring of anECMO 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 ofThe Pitt.
— Jeremy D. Larson, Nothing Sounds as Good asThe Pitt, ^[53]

Before writing the script, Gemmill, Wells, and Wyle decided to use almost no soundtrack music inThe Pitt to complement its documentary style.^[53] Instead, Gemmill, Sachs, and Wells focused on creating a faithfulsound design that could directly convey the emotional cues usually imbued in the music and set the pace of the scenes.^[53] It involved recording and layering the main dialogue, background conversations, and machinery sounds.^[53] 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.^[46] For the background, Sachs recorded the discussions of real-life ER nurses and gave them to extras to register.^[53] Nevertheless,The Pitt employs some musicalmotifs anddrones composed by Gavin Brivik intended to blur the line betweendiegetic and non-diegetic music.^[53] The team asked Brivik to create an imperceptible score to occasionally increase the tension throughout the series.^[53] Additionally, they meant to capture the sensation of Robby'stinnitus at times.^[53]

Instead of using anopening theme, each episode ofThe Pitt starts with a simpletitle card stating what hour of the shift it covers.^[53] 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.^[54] The vocal version of "Fail Forward" played in the thirteenth episode.^[54] Three other songs were featured in the first season: "Baby" byRobert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise, "Funky Music Sho' 'Nuff Turns Me On" byEdwin Starr, and "Savage" byMegan Thee Stallion.^[55]

Mark Strand, Joey Reinisch, Lauren Pendergrass, and Annie Eifrig served aseditors onThe Pitt. Strand and Eifrig had already worked with Wells onAnimal Kingdom andMaid (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 distinguishThe Pitt from other medical dramas. In particular, Strand said that Wyle referenced the 2023 filmThe Zone of Interest byJonathan 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.^[56]

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 frequentlyjump 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 "dirtycuts" 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.^[56]

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.^[56]

Bloys wanted to promoteThe Pitt by applying a network-style marketing strategy.^[24] He chose to use the model ofappointment television, having the episodes be released each week on the same day at the same hour duringprime time instead of launching them in the middle of the night—a standard practice for streaming services.^[24] The first two episodes ofThe 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.^[2] Each episode runs for 41 to 61 minutes.^[57][58] The first episode of the series was screened for healthcare andemergency medical services (EMS) providers at Allegheny General Hospital on January 10, 2025, followed by a discussion via video conference with Hissrich and Wyle.^[59] Max reported thatThe Pitt's premiere became one of the five most-watched Max series debuts.^[24] Bloys said the series will possibly be broadcast on cable networkTNT, owned by Warner Bros., ahead of the release of the second season.^[24] It is scheduled to be broadcast the uncut version on TNT on December 1, 2025, with three episodes back-to-back per week until December 29.^[60]

The second season is scheduled to premiere on January 8, 2026.^[4]

The review aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes reported a 95% approval rating based on 77 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."^[61]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 76 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[62]

Phillip Maciak ofThe New Republic praised the contrasting pacing of the show's plotlines.^[63] Reviewing the series forChicago 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. AndThe Pitt lands enough on both fronts to make it essential viewing."^[64]Linda Holmes ofNPR described it as "a very sharp season of television with outstanding performances across the board."^[65] Brian Farvour ofThe Playlist gave the series an A+ and said, "The Pitt stands out entirely independently, separate from its pseudo-ancestor inER and as a bonafide triumph in storytelling, chemistry and television."^[66] David Sims ofThe Atlantic commented, "It's already without question the finest example of the genre in more than a generation."^[67]

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 WatchingThe Pitt Feels So Cathartic for ER Doctors Like Me, ^[68]

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.^[69][70][71] Several healthcare professionals found certain scenestriggering and difficult to watch for their realistic approach.^[69][70] In particular, they referenced the flashbacks to the pandemic and a scene where the cries of a grieving mother are heard throughout the ER.^[69][70][71] Some members of EMS said the series led them to confront the emotional weight of their profession.^[68][69] Other professionals have enjoyed watchingThe Pitt with their families to show them their daily routines, since physicians are not allowed to have family members visit them at work due toHIPAA andpatient confidentiality rules.^[70][71][72] Dr. Nicholas Cozzi, director of EMS atRush 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".^[68] Healthcare workers in Canada have also foundThe Pitt accurate and relatable despite systemic differences.^[73]

Several physicians have described the technical scenes as mostly realistic, but they focused on howThe 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.^{[68][70][74][75]} Amanda Choflet, dean ofNortheastern University School of Nursing, appreciated the series' inclusion of themes related to mental health and substance abuse issues in healthcare providers.^[74] Dr. Lukas Ramcharran, an attending physician andassistant professor in the department of emergency medicine atJohns 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.^[72] 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".^[74] Dr. Lois K. Lee, anassociate professor of pediatrics in the department of emergency medicine atBoston Children's Hospital, described as fairly accurate the implementation of MCI protocols, having herself experienced them during thebombing at the Boston Marathon in 2013.^[75] 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.^[72][75]

Nevertheless, healthcare workers have criticized aspects ofThe Pitt: the improbably high number 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.^[69][75] Sachs has stated that CPR could not be always done correctly in the series because it cannot be performed on an actor.^[71] Some physicians noted that they spend a lot more time filling medical records in real life.^[70][75] 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."^[72] 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".^[72] A scene in the 11th episode depicting childbirth withshoulder dystocia andpostpartum hemorrhage complications was criticized as unrealistic byOB/GYN physicians.^[76]

In August 2024, the estate of Crichton, led by his widow, sued Warner Bros. Television, Gemmill, Wells, and Wyle overbreach of contract, breach of implied covenant ofgood faith andfair dealing, andintentional interference with contractual relations, claiming thatThe Pitt was a reworking of a plannedERreboot that the estate had not approved.^[85] 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 seriesWestworld (2016–2022).^[85] In November 2024, Warner Bros. Television's lawyers filed for a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming thatThe Pitt is "a completely different show".^[86] 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.^[19]

• The Pitt onHBO Max
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