R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells on making The Pitt "feel even more visceral" in season 2

"We don't want to make a show you can fold your laundry to. We want you to lean forward in your seat."

By Saloni Gajjar | January 5, 2026 | 2:00pm

Photo: Warrick Page/HBO Max

TV Features The Pitt

R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells on making The Pitt

2026 has barely started, but over on The Pitt, it’s already a sweltering summer morning when Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) rides to the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center on his motorbike (sans helmet) in the show’s season-two premiere. HBO Max’s hit drama picks up 10 months after season one’s finale, which saw Robby and his ER colleagues dealing with a mass-casualty event after a rough day of emotional confrontations and mental breakdowns. The Pitt made a splashy debut and quickly turned into an awards juggernaut, nabbing multiple Emmys and, just yesterday, the top TV prize at the Critics’ Choice Awards. And in an increasingly rare feat in the streaming era, the show returns on January 8—almost exactly a year after its premiere—with higher stakes, new faces, and more tear-jerking cases.

In the upcoming batch of episodes, Robby chooses July Fourth as his last day before going on a monthslong sabbatical. So now he’s forced to collaborate with his replacement, Dr. Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), who arrives with ideas to improve the department. He also comes face-to-face with his mentee, Dr. Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball), who returns to work after a rehab stint. What’s more, Robby’s love interest, Tracy Ifeachor‘s Dr. Heather Collins, isn’t around anymore (although he may have another romance brewing). Season one’s rookie docs like Trinity Santos (Isa Briones) and Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez) have progressed to training med students, while everyone’s favorite nurse, Dana Evans (Emmy winner Katherine LaNasa), gets a young protege of her own. While coping with personal issues, they get bombarded with plenty of jarring cases. All of this might make The Pitt sound like a soapy medical drama. But the real-time format (in which each episode is one hour of a 15-hour shift) is the key here, helping maintain a gritty, immersive tone that sets it apart.

The crackerjack team of R. Scott Gemmill, John Wells, and Wyle were, of course, part of the long-running TV hit ER. So it’s not surprising that they quickly found their footing. Wells, who executive produces this procedural, swears by following the rigorous formula. “If it’s covering the whole story in only one hour, it’s difficult to keep it from being a bit melodramatic,” Wells says. “Since our arc takes place over multiple episodes or hours, hopefully the audience gets invested in it and bonds with [the person] like our doctors do. That’s what makes [season two] feel even more visceral.” He tells The A.V. Club that this setup allows them to tell stories in a way this genre doesn’t normally see, even if the topics that The Pitt covers might be familiar, like “a powerful sexual assault storyline” with a patient in the latter half of season two (a subject that has been portrayed on Grey’s Anatomy, The Resident, and ER).

Another patient storyline that Wells and series creator Gemmill are excited about concerns the return of Louie (Ernest Harden Jr.), who Frank was stealing pills from in season one. He pops back in for a bunch of early episodes because Louie is a “frequent flyer,” per Gemmill. He explains that during their research and in speaking to practitioners, they discovered that a few “regulars” come to the ER not just for medical attention but to eat, shower, and receive basic care. “We want to talk about how those people affect the hospital workers who have come to know them, so if something tragic happens, it reminds you of the fragility of life and how we take things for granted,” he says. Louie’s return takes a toll on Frank, who spends his first day back attempting to make amends. Robby is number one on his priority list, but his mentor has too many things on his plate already.

Speaking of Robby, it takes no time for him to clash with Al-Hashimi. In wanting to shake up his established structure, she throws an unexpected challenge at Robby and the rest of their coworkers: the hot-button issue of artificial intelligence. Wells tells The A.V. Club that, while speaking to doctors, AI came up as a major concern in the ER, so they knew they had to weave that into The Pitt. “Everyone’s in favor of something that might speed up paperwork, but the fear is that the new tech will be used to increase the number of patients you have to see instead of spending more time with them,” he says. Wells, in a bit of foreshadowing, adds, “We’re putting so much faith in everything being electronic, but if you think about it, do you want your health records in a cloud somewhere in a Utah data center? And what are the safeguards for physicians?”

Much like The Pitt‘s debut round, which tackled anti-vaxxers, abortion, violence against healthcare workers, and racial bias in hospitals, the sophomore run also seamlessly covers timely topics. Wells says that doing so “takes a lot of planning,” which is why they opened the writers’ room as post-production ended on season one. “We literally did the mix of the finale on a Friday, and on Tuesday, we were back. The only reason we weren’t there on Monday was that it was Presidents’ Day.” Despite the rush, Wells stresses that a guiding principle for The Pitt has been to trust their “visually literate” audience’s intelligence. “We don’t want to make a show you can fold your laundry to,” he says, a nod to the rise of second-screen and background viewing series in the streaming age. “We want you to lean forward in your seat.” And he teases that, if you pay attention, there are arcs going on in the background that will make watching this upcoming hectic season that much more rewarding.

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.

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