Paging Dr. Ross, paging Dr. Doug Ross.
HBO chief Casey Bloys says “obviously” George Clooney would be “welcome” to join or guest on HBO Max emergency room drama The Pitt. Clooney and The Pitt star-writer Noah Wyle famously co-starred on NBC’s ER, which is equally obviously an inspiration for the streaming series. The two shows share Dr. Wyle, an emergency room setting and a behind-the-scenes team led by John Wells, R. Scott Gemmill and Joe Sachs (and even more ER vets).
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The Michael Crichton estate, which holds the ER copyright, thinks The Pitt is more like a direct ripoff and is suing Warner Bros. Television over the likeness. Warner Bros. Discovery has been trying to get the suit dismissed before it gets off the ground, but as of a few weeks ago, the company has thus far been unsuccessful — twice.
The Clooney-on-The-Pitt fan-casting idea made some headlines last week when, speaking with Entertainment Tonight at a screening of his upcoming movie, Jay Kelly, Clooney said he would “do that in a heartbeat.” But is that actually on the table?
“I saw [that interview] as well,” Bloys told The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday. “Obviously, sure, he’s welcome.”
Bloys added that nothing like that is in the works — yet.
At the Jay Kelly event for the film in which Clooney stars opposite Adam Sandler, the actor said he has not spoken with Wyle about being on The Pitt.
“What a beautiful show it is, and what a great success it has been,” Clooney added. “What a fun thing to have — [Wyle] kind of continuing on a tradition.”
Though ER was Clooney’s true breakout vehicle, it was Wyle’s show in terms of longevity. Wyle’s John Carter was in the emergency room at County General Hospital in Chicago for most of the show’s 15 seasons, whereas Clooney was on call for about half that.
The Pitt was renewed for a second season in February.
On Dec. 1, The Pitt (season one) will make its linear-television debut on TNT, which shares parent company Warner Bros. Discovery with HBO Max. The show has been very well-received by critics and its audience.
“While The Pitt projects a disorganized buzz, it builds its bigger storylines deftly, climaxing with a perfect storm of emotional beats in an eighth episode that generates tears that feel far more earned than I would have predicted,” THR’s Daniel Fienberg wrote in his review. “The Pitt definitely isn’t ER, but at times it does ER-adjacent things in a way that fans of the genre will appreciate.”
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