PITTSBURGH — HBO Max has announced The Pitt, a medical drama series starring Noah Wyle as Dr. Robby, a lead physician in the emergency department of a Pittsburgh hospital. Wyle serves as executive producer and writer on the series.

The idea for The Pitt emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic when first responders sent mail to Wyle chronicling their experiences. Wyle contacted John Wells, the showrunner on ER, to develop a post-COVID look at the American healthcare system, and Wells agreed.

"I was getting a lot of mail from them, sort of chronicling what that experience was like. I assumed they were reaching out to me because they felt that I had a relevance to their career, having been part of what motivated them to go into that line of work," Wyle said in an interview. "He agreed immediately that everything was going to be different after Covid. So that became the focus, can we do a version, a very up-to-date look at the American healthcare system?"

The series addresses health and social issues including a measles outbreak, a shooting at a festival, the opioid crisis, medical abortion, black maternal care, and homelessness. In one episode, construction worker Orlando Diaz suffers serious diabetes complications after rationing his insulin due to cost and has a $100,000 medical debt.

Wyle discussed the financial constraints facing American patients in an interview. "But I don't think it's unrelatable in the sense that, in the winter, Europeans have to make very hard choices about their heating bill versus their food bill. You have to make these choices based on your limited resources and Americans are burdened with an additional item that is health insurance. That makes it very complicated," he said. "It's very frustrating for the physician who oftentimes is compromised in what they're able to do, and it's frustrating for the patients."

Wyle is best known for his leading role as Dr. Carter in ER alongside George Clooney and Alex Kingston. He spent time discussing healthcare differences between the United States and United Kingdom with British actors Gerran Howell and Tracy Ifeachor who appear in The Pitt.

Wyle's mother was a nurse. After watching a season one episode of The Pitt, his mother experienced what she considered to be a PTSD trigger, recalling memories she had not shared with her family before.

The Pitt has won numerous awards in the United States, including Emmys and Golden Globes. The title refers to American slang for the emergency room.