Noah Wyle has a long list of credits to his name by this point in his career, but he's undoubtedly best known for more than 250 episodes of ER. Not many people can boast appearing in both the series premiere and series finale of a show that runs fifteen seasons with a lot of cast shake-ups over the years. Now, fifteen years after ER ended in 2009, Wyle is set to join a TV show full of doctors again, and it involves an ER reunion. Be still, my nostalgic ER heart!
A new medical drama called The Pitt has received a straight-to-series order from Max, for a total of fifteen episodes. Noah Wyle is on board as both star and executive producer of the show that examines the challenges that healthcare workers currently face, portrayed through heroes working on the front lines. Years of playing John Carter on ER undoubtedly mean that Wyle has experience in portraying challenges facing healthcare workers, although hopefully his character won't be stabbed this time around! The new medical drama will be set in Pittsburgh rather than Chicago.
And given that I have watched ER in every medium ranging from DVD box sets to streaming via Hulu subscription to episodes (and reruns) airing on TV, I'm officially already excited, although the announcement for The Pitt doesn't confirm if Noah Wyle will play a doctor for the new show. He will be joining forces with previous ER talent, however, with former producer and writer R. Scott Gemmill on board as showrunner and John Wells Productions co-producing with Warner Bros. Television. Wyle, Gemmill, and Wells (who was showrunner for ER back in the day) released a joint statement saying:
We are grateful to Warner Bros. Television and Max for giving us this opportunity to return to the world of urban medicine. The myriad of challenges facing the doctors, nurses, technicians, patients, and their families who work in the trenches of modern medicine have become only more pronounced in the decade and a half since we last visited their stories. We’re thrilled to be able to return to this world with the support of our partners and are looking forward to pushing the boundaries of dramatic realism and medical accuracy in following the lives of these heroic men and women.
As somebody who has compared several modern medical dramas – including a stabbing on The Good Doctor and a doctor struggling with drugs on The Resident – I couldn't be more optimistic about The Pitt. Noah Wyle appeared in every season of ER except for Seasons 13 and 14, and viewers got to see Carter's journey from a very green medical student to an accomplished attending who could tackle just about anything that County General could throw at him. The actor was nominated for the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Emmy for five consecutive years on ER.
For now, fans of the long-running medical drama can always hope that some of Wyle's former co-stars appear on The Pitt. I'm not sure if my heart could take a guest role from Anthony Edwards, though. How Mark Greene was written out still hurts, years later, despite his funny story about an on-set prank!
Despite the straight-to-series order for fifteen episodes, Max did not announce when to expect The Pitt to debut for Max subscribers, so I wouldn't count on it being ready by the end of the 2024 TV schedule. You can always revisit (or watch for the first time) ER streaming via Hulu, though! I know this news has put me in the mood to go back to some County General stories.
