The Pitt is an American medical 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; they previously worked together on ER (1994–2009). It stars Wyle, Tracy Ifeachor, Patrick Ball, Katherine LaNasa, Supriya Ganesh, Fiona Dourif, Taylor Dearden, Isa Briones, Gerran Howell, Shabana Azeez, and Sepideh Moafi. Each season follows emergency department staff at a fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center as they navigate a single 12-hour shift amid staff shortages, underfunding, and personal crises. Each episode is set in real time and depicts approximately one hour of the shift.
The Pitt premiered on Max (later rebranded as HBO Max) on January9, 2025. The series has received critical acclaim for its performances, writing, direction, format, and realism. It has also been praised by physicians and medical publications for its accuracy, realistic representation of healthcare workers, and portrayal of the stressors faced by medical staff in a post-pandemic world. The Pitt was renewed for a second season in February 2025, which premiered on January8, 2026. In January 2026, ahead of the second-season premiere, the series was renewed for a third season.
The series has received several accolades, winning eleven awards at the Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series (two wins) and Outstanding Casting (two wins), along with acting wins for Wyle (two wins) and LaNasa (one win). It also received Best Television Series – Drama at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards. Additionally, it was listed as one of the 10 best television programs of 2025 by the American Film Institute.
Premise In the first season, attending physician Dr.Michael "Robby" Robinavitch starts a shift at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center's emergency room (ER), nicknamed "the Pitt". Four trainee doctors join the team. 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. They are guided by Robby and the Pitt's other staff members. 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.
The second season takes place ten months later, on the 4th of July. Robby meets the attending physician who will be taking over for him while he is on a three-month sabbatical. A staff member returns from time away, while two medical students and a nursing school graduate join the team.
Cast and characters
In decreasing order of seniority, the medical hierarchy begins with the attending physician, followed by senior residents, junior residents (categorized by year), interns (first-year residents), and finally, medical students (categorized by year). Nurses and other medical staff have their own hierarchy not listed here.
Noah Wyle as Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, a senior attending physician at the Pitt. He cares about his hospital, staff, and patients but is struggling with PTSD from the COVID-19 pandemic. In season two, he is suffering from burnout and depression, and plans to take a sabbatical. Tracy Ifeachor as Dr. Heather Collins (season 1), a senior resident who is secretly pregnant. She and Robby have a romantic past. Patrick Ball as Dr. Frank Langdon, a quick-witted senior resident. He is found to be struggling with addiction and stealing medication from the hospital, and is sent home by a furious and betrayed Robby toward the end of season one. He returns in season two having gone to rehab. Katherine LaNasa as Dana Evans, the no-nonsense day-shift charge nurse. She puts on a strong front but is compassionate when the staff or patients need her. Supriya Ganesh as Dr. Samira Mohan (seasons 1–2), a third-year, and later fourth-year, resident trying to find balance between diligence and speed. Fiona Dourif as Dr. Cassie McKay, an empathetic, 42-year-old second-year, and later third-year, resident. She is raising her young son, Harrison, as a single mother. During the first season, she is on house arrest and wears an ankle monitor due to a past criminal conviction. Taylor Dearden as Dr. Melissa "Mel" King, a neurodivergent second-year, and later third-year, resident with an autistic twin sister. Mel connects with Langdon in season one and is one of the few staff members who seem happy about his return in season two. Isa Briones as Dr. Trinity Santos, a cocky, ambitious intern and later second-year resident. Although she can come off as cold, Santos lets Whitaker, whom she nicknames "Huckleberry", live with her after learning he is homeless in season one. She also has a complicated relationship with surgical resident Dr. Yolanda Garcia in season two. Gerran Howell as Dr. Dennis Whitaker, a gentle but naive fourth-year medical student. He becomes a doctor by the second season and mentors two new medical students. Shabana Azeez as Victoria Javadi, a 20-year-old third-year, and later fourth-year, medical student whose parents are also physicians at PTMC. In season two, she is also a medical influencer going by the name "Dr. J". Sepideh Moafi as Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (season 2–present), a new attending physician at the Pitt who arrives as Robby's interim replacement ahead of his sabbatical. Ayesha Harris as Dr. Parker Ellis (season 3; recurring seasons 1–2), a night shift senior resident.
Episodes
Season 1 (2025)
Season 2 (2026)
Season 3
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 million to 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 creator, Gemmill wrote the pilot episode and serves as the series' showrunner. In February 2025, Max ordered a second season of The Pitt. The season chronicles 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." In January 2026, a day before the second-season premiere, Max renewed the series for a third season.
Filming To design The Pitt 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 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 that the ER would have last been remodeled in 2010, so it did not include any advancements that were developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. 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.