Lawyers for ‘The Pitt’ File Final Brief to Dismiss Claims It Is a Knockoff of ‘ER’

According to legal filings reported in recent court documents, the ongoing dispute between Max’s medical drama The Pitt and the estate of ER creator Michael Crichton has taken another step forward.

The case, which was filed in 2024, continues to center on claims that The Pitt is an unauthorized copy or “derivative work” of the long-running NBC series ER.

In a new reply brief submitted on Monday night, lawyers for Warner Bros., producer John Wells, and actor Noah Wyle pushed back strongly against those accusations. They argue that the idea of The Pitt being based on ER is unfounded and not supported by the evidence presented so far in the case.

The legal team stated that the lawsuit is built on a narrow interpretation of a 1994 contract connected to ER rights. In their filing, they described the case as an attempt to stop the series entirely, saying, “Plaintiff seeks to kill ‘The Pitt’ — and claims it should never have aired — based on a plainly incorrect misreading of a single phrase in a 1994 contract that gave Crichton approval rights over ‘derivative works’ of ‘ER.’”

The defendants also argue that the two shows are not similar in any legally meaningful way. They say that The Pitt only shares broad genre elements with ER, such as being set in a hospital environment and using common medical storytelling tools.

In the filing, they wrote that “The Pitt contains no protected elements from ‘ER’: aside from sharing a genre (hospital drama) and certain unprotectable, genre-specific tropes, like the use of medical jargon, the two shows are nothing alike.” They also added that Noah Wyle’s character in The Pitt is completely different from his role in ER.

Another point raised in the brief is timing. The defense says the lawsuit was filed before The Pitt even premiered, and they also claim the Crichton estate once considered developing an ER reboot with similar ideas, including real-time storytelling, before abandoning the project.

The original lawsuit accuses the producers of breaching contract terms and argues that The Pitt only exists because a planned agreement to reboot ER fell apart. Earlier, the defendants tried to have the case dismissed under California’s anti-SLAPP law, which is meant to protect creative works from lawsuits that lack strong evidence. However, a judge ruled that the case had enough merit to move forward.

The case is now heading toward oral arguments in the appellate court. Meanwhile, The Pitt continues its run on Max, with the series already renewed for a third season following a successful second season and multiple award nominations.

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