R. Scott Gemmill and EP John Wells talk about crafting the new Noah Wyle-led "The Pitt," and the perks of making a procedural for streaming

It’s time to scrub into the 2025 TV schedule once again, as Max’s new medical drama The Pitt has debuted, and with it Noah Wyle’s drama series comeback. Working with some of the people that helped him make a name in his ER days,

Medical dramas don't tend to be my primary choice of TV show. But I'd be a liar if I said The Pitt didn't hook me right away. The Pitt immerses us in the high-stress environment of Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center's emergency department,

HBO’s streaming platform Max is emulating network TV with a weekly medical drama. Each episode tracks an hour of a shift in the ER.

Noah Wyle stars as a put-upon emergency department doctor in "The Pitt," streaming on Max. He's not a grown-up Dr. Carter from "ER," but he's close.

He's immersing himself in work, but he's doing exactly what anybody would be doing in his job on shift,' says Wyle.

A medical drama going for bracing realism is anchored by a strong central performance from a veteran TV doctor.

Hailing from 'ER' vets including R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells, the 15-episode real-time series follows the doctors and nurses at a Pittsburgh trauma center.

That landmark show, lauded for its character-driven, gritty realism (which set the standard for future IV-infused TV) launched on NBC in 1994 and gave Wyle his breakout role as an earnest medical student,

"The Pitt" is a smart show that values character detail and intricate medical science that sometimes succumbs to doses of melodrama that can be forgiven for everything that it does very well.

The new Max medical drama chronicles a 15-hour shift at a fictional Pittsburgh emergency room. The second episode of The Pitt — the new Max medical drama starring Noah Wyle as the chief attending doctor in an overwhelmed emergency room in Pittsburgh — ends with the grimmest four minutes I've seen on TV in a while.