HBO’s Casey Bloys Doesn’t Expect Michael Crichton Estate’s Lawsuit to Impact ‘The Pitt’

HBO and Max chairman and CEO Casey Bloys has weighed in on the Michael Crichton estate’s lawsuit over its upcoming medical drama “The Pitt.”

The lawsuit, which claims “The Pitt” is a breach of Crichton’s “ER” contract, alleges that after a lengthy, years-long negotiation to make a reboot that ultimately fell through, Warner Bros. Television, John Wells, Noah Wyle and R. Scott Gemmill took the concept and reworked it to become “The Pitt,” a drama that follows frontline heroes working in a Pittsburgh hospital. The suit argues there are only three major differences between the series that was in negotiation and “The Pitt”: the location of the hospital, Wyle’s character name and the estate’s involvement.

In response, WBTV has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit argued that the show is “completely different” and not a derivative work and that the estate is using the document as “a speech-stifling weapon” to prevent them from ever making a show about emergency medicine.

“I’m sure I’m not supposed to talk about active litigation, but I will say the idea that a show can’t be set in an ER seems kind of unrealistic on its face, that no other show can be set in a hospital emergency room,” Bloys said during a 2025 content slate presentation on Tuesday. “I mean, it’s kind of a staple on television. I don’t anticipate impacts on the show itself, but I’ll leave that to the Warner Bros. lawyers.”

A spokesperson for Sherri Crichton, wife of the late Michael Crichton and guardian of his estate, responded to Bloys’ Tuesday comments calling them “not credible.”

“The case is not about whether someone can do a show set in a hospital. It is about whether Warner Bros., John Wells, Noah Wyle, and Scott Gemmill can spend two years developing an ‘ER’ reboot, negotiate with the estate for nearly a year to obtain consent per Michael Crichton’s contract, and, when they can’t get the terms they want, proceed with the exact same show with a different title and location,” the statement read. “Mr. Bloys would have you believe that, within 72 hours of breaking off negotiations with the estate, the same creative team developed a completely new and original show that has nothing in common with ‘ER’ and the planned reboot beyond the fact that it is set in a hospital and stars Noah Wyle. That’s absurd on its face, and the facts prove otherwise. ‘The Pitt’ isn’t just another medical show. It is ‘ER.’”

Bloys emphasized that there are practical, business and creative reasons as to why the two shows are different.

“The creative one would be the closed-end storytelling, the episodic storytelling. That is what HBO has generally done, which is you watch all the episodes to get the full impact,” he explained. “What I think broadcast television did so well for many, many years, and basic cable, was you could watch one episode. And that’s not from a storytelling perspective. That is a very different way to approach storytelling, and it does require, in the case of ‘The Pitt,’ a fixed location in order to do that at a price that is reasonable. So that’s why I think you’re seeing a lot of people kind of rediscover what was done so well in terms of procedurals and medical shows.”

He added that he’s seen seven episodes of “The Pitt,” noting its “really, really good” and that he’s excited about it. He also said a number of procedurals are in development.

“The Pitt” 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 in Pittsburgh,”

Gemmill (“NCIS: Los Angeles,” “ER,” “JAG”) will serve as showrunner, and is set to write the first episode of the series. He executive produces alongside Wyle and Wells (“Shameless,” “The West Wing,” “ER”).

In addition to Wyle, the cast of “The Pitt” includes Tracy Ifeachor, Patrick Ball, Supriya Ganesh, Fiona Dourif, Taylor Dearden, Isa Briones, Gerran Howell, Shabana Azeez and Katherine LaNasa. Other recent adds include Shawn Hatosy, Mika Abdalla, Michael Hyatt, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Brandon Mendez Homer, Kristin Villanueva, Amielynn Abellera, Alexandra Metz, Krystel V. McNeil and Deepti Gupta.

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