As “The Pitt” breaks viewing records for Max, executive producer John Wells said he and his team are “hopeful” they might get the green light for Season 2.
“We believe there are a lot more stories to tell and we’re excited,” Wells told reporters during a Warner Bros. TV press day when asked about the potential for a second installment of the Noah Wyle-led medical drama. The question also prompted some curiosity from the cast — which includes Katherine LaNasa, Taylor Dearden, Fiona Dourif, Patrick Ball and Shabana Azeez — with Wells joking “that question has never come up from the cast.”
“It’s really relatively early still in our run — we’ve only had four episodes on the air so far, and it would be very unusual to hear this early,” he continued. “But we’re all hopeful and want to spend more time with these characters.”
When asked if he was “ER-ed out” after producing “ER” and “The Pitt,” Wells explained that the new show’s interest lies in its stories and characters, saying, “We have a fantastic cast and getting to spend more time with them, I’d be as interested, as you are, I think, as an audience member, to see what else is there to learn about these people.”
“The Pitt” launched its first two episodes on Jan. 9, and soon became one of the Top 5 most-watched Max original series premieres ever. The medical drama saw its audience grow nearly tenfold in its first week on the streamer, doubling the average growth seen by other Max drama series.
“We all have to intersect with the medical world in various ways … I think there’s a feeling of wanting to know what’s actually going to happen and it allows us in advance to kind of live out our concerns,” Wells said. “You want to see
people like these wonderful characters that Scott’s created and that Noah is playing. You want these people to be the people that, when you get to the hospital, when you get to the emergency room, are actually going to take care of you, your family, your children, the people you love.”
Wyle is no stranger to the emergency room after playing John Carter on “ER” during its 15-season run. However, he admitted “The Pitt” is a “totally different acting exercise,” pointing to the show’s format of portraying an hour per episode of a 15-hour shift, adding that he hasn’t “even thought about similarities or differences to the other character.”
“This is building a pressure cooker, hour by hour, degree by degree, ingredient by ingredient, playing with levels of fatigue and an ability to compartmentalize things that need to be compartmentalized,” Wyle said. “This has been a wonderful sort of psychological examination of one guy having one of the worst days of his life and the presence required in just that exercise.”
Should “The Pitt” get the greenlight for a second season, it’s unclear if the next installment would follow a similar format as Season 1.
“The Pitt” releases new episodes Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Max.
