Summary

  • Noah Wyle revealed talks about an ER revival with original creators, but opted for a new medical series, The Pitt.
  • The Pitt will focus on the challenges facing healthcare workers in a Pittsburgh hospital in today's America.
  • ER, considered one of the greatest TV series, ran from 1994 to 2009 and remains a beloved classic in the medical drama genre.

In an alternate timeline, there could have been more patients heading into County General Hospital. Noah Wyle, who portrayed Dr. John Carter on NBC's iconic medical drama series ER, recently revealed that there were talks about reviving the series with some of its original creators, but instead they decided to go another direction - by having him star in another medical series, the upcoming Max show The Pitt.

Wyle shared the news on an episode of the Still Here Hollywood podcast, revealing that he had spoken to ER executive producer and showrunner John Wells about a revival in 2020. An ER reboot was "kind of the road we had started down," Wyle said. "I was getting all this mail from first responders and I had this desire to pivot the compliments to John Wells, so I emailed him." The pair then began slowly discussing a potential "character piece" that would depict the lives of the ER staff:

"I went on and I said, 'I know you don’t want to reboot the show. I don't either. I thought it was very smart not to franchise ... but if you’ve ever wanted to do something much smaller, and much more contained — more of a character piece catching up to an old character and just finding out how they feel about what’s happening right now in healthcare, and use them as a jeremiad opportunity to say what you want — I would vote for that. I'd be on board for that.'"

The Pair Decided to Work on 'The Pitt' Instead

Wyle added that he and Wells even got a couple of old ER writers to talk about the project, but it never panned out. Instead, Wyle and Wells decided to focus on The Pitt, which will take place in a Pittsburgh hospital and is described as a realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in today’s America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working in a modern-day hospital. Wyle will star in and executive produce the series with Wells also executive producing. Warner Bros. has given the series a 15-episode order.

It is probably a good thing that ER remains as is - the show, which ran from 1994 to 2009, is considered one of the greatest television series ever made and is the second-longest running primetime medical drama behind Grey's Anatomy. The show came from NBC, Warner Bros. Television and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television. Created by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton, ER depicted the chaotic happenings at Chicago's fictional County General Hospital. It served as a career springboard for George Clooney, who portrayed Dr. Doug Ross in the show's early years, and also starred Anthony Edwards as lead attending physician Dr. Mark Greene alongside Eriq La Salle, Julianna Marguiles, Sherry Stringfield, Laura Innes, John Stamos, Angela Bassett, and many more.

The Pitt does not have a release date yet. Episodes of ER can be streamed now on Hulu.