A lawsuit filed against the Emmy-award-winning show “The Pitt” by the widow of “ER” Creator Michael Crichton can proceed, a panel of judges ruled.
The three-judge panel denied Warner Bros. Television’s appeal, which argued the shows were unrelated, Variety reported.
But the judges issued a unanimous opinion which read, “There are clear and numerous similarities between ‘The Pitt’ and ‘ER,” adding, “We find the details here suffice for a prima facie case.”
The panel cited the emergency room setting, medical jargon used, graphic depictions of medical conditions, and a young, incompetent doctor just out of medical school, according to Variety.
Both “ER” and “The Pitt” star Noah Wyle. “ER” aired on NBC from 1994 to 2009, according to IMDB. It can be streamed on Hulu. “The Pitt” airs on HBO Max and premiered in 2025.
“ER” took place in Chicago, while “The Pitt” plays out in Pittsburgh, NBC News noted.
The judges did throw out a claim against Wyle, John Wells, and R. Scott Gemmill after finding no evidence they knew they could be violating Crichton’s rights.
Crichton wrote a script in 1974 about his experiences as a medical student. The story evolved into “ER,” and as part of his contract with Warner Bros. Television, he had “frozen rights” preventing the studio from making spinoffs or reboots without his approval.
His wife, Sherri Crichton, sued in August 2024, before “The Pitt” started airing, saying that Wells and Wyle wanted to reboot “ER” but changed it to “The Pitt” after she refused to grant permission.
Warner Bros. Television argues that “The Pitt” is a different show, citing California’s anti-SLAPP rules, which were designed to prevent lawsuits over free speech, NBC News explained. Last year, a judge denied the studio’s motion, saying Sherri Crichton had enough evidence to let the case go forward.
Wyle explained how “The Pitt” developed and the earlier discussions about a future “ER” reboot.
“We were going to start down an ‘ER’ reboot road that didn’t come to pass, but we sort of set a table of expectation for a medical show from us that we were then allowed to really fast-track the development process through because of that vacuum that we’d created from the near-miss,” he told Amy Poehler on her podcast.
“And so, this just happened so quickly that it seemed like there was a larger force behind it, and we just needed to stay on the surfboard and let it push us,” he said.
She asked if any of the “ER” discussions made it into his new show; he explained, “Well, I’m sorry to say for all the ‘ER’ fans, but once we uncoupled ourselves from that IP, it suddenly liberated the storytelling”
“It wasn’t about, ‘Who do we see again and what have they been up to?’ It’s, ‘What are the issues of the day and what’s the most cogent way to put them across?’” he said, according to NBC News. “So it, in a lot of ways, it kind of liberated the narrative for us and allowed us to reframe and kind of modernize it and not have to pay any homage to traveled road.”
With the latest ruling, a jury may decide whether “The Pitt” is a derivative of “ER” unless the parties reach a settlement.
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