Court Says ‘The Pitt’ and ‘ER’ Look a Lot Alike, and Michael Crichton’s Widow Gets to Keep Fighting

When ‘ER’ ended, it left behind a lasting legacy in television. Michael Crichton’s 1990s hit turned Noah Wyle into a household name, and he played Dr. John Carter on the series for 11 seasons.

Decades later, Wyle is again at the center of a medical hit, this time as Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch in HBO Max’s ‘The Pitt’. The show has become an awards-season juggernaut, and a legal cloud that formed before it even premiered has now taken a serious turn.

A California appeals court ruled Wednesday that the lawsuit from Crichton’s widow, Sherri Crichton, can move forward. In a unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel upheld a lower court’s decision and found “clear and numerous similarities” between the 2 shows, Variety reported.

The court pointed to the emergency room setting, the fast pace, the medical jargon, the graphic depictions of injuries and a young, incompetent doctor fresh from medical school. Those details, it concluded, suffice for a prima facie case.

The ruling was not a clean sweep for the estate. The court dismissed claims against Wyle, producer John Wells and showrunner R. Scott Gemmill, finding no evidence that they knew they could be violating Crichton’s contractual rights.

That leaves Warner Bros. Television as the central target of the case. The opinion runs 33 pages and sends the dispute back to Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Sherri Crichton filed the suit in August 2024, months before ‘The Pitt’ debuted. The complaint alleges that when Crichton sold Warner Bros. the screenplay that became the ‘ER’ pilot, the studio promised that no subsequent productions derived from the show would go forward without his consent.

The dispute traces back to 2020, when Wyle approached Wells about bringing Dr. Carter back to television. According to the estate, negotiations over an ‘ER’ revival dragged on for nearly a year before collapsing, after which Warner Bros. moved the show from Chicago to Pittsburgh, rebranded it and plowed ahead without attribution or compensation.

Warner Bros., Wells and Wyle have all denied the allegations. The studio has argued that ‘The Pitt’ is a completely different show, and that Crichton’s estate does not own the idea of setting a series in a hospital.

Wyle has said in a sworn statement that the new series is not an unauthorized offshoot of the Crichton hit. A motion to throw out the case under California’s anti-SLAPP statute, which is meant to deter frivolous lawsuits that stymie free expression, was denied by Judge Wendy Chang last year, and the appeals court has now upheld that decision.

The first trailer for ‘THE PITT’ Season 3 has been released. Releasing January on HBO Max. https://t.co/oCxfCvCYTJ

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) August 21, 2026

It is important to note that the court did not decide that ‘The Pitt’ illegally copied ‘ER’. The decision only means the estate has presented enough evidence to continue pursuing its contractual claims.

The bigger question, whether ‘The Pitt’ is a derivative work of ‘ER’, could ultimately be left to a jury unless the parties settle first. Sherri Crichton said through her lawyer that she was deeply gratified by the decision and looks forward to discovery and to presenting the case to a jury.

The timing carries symbolic weight as well. The ruling arrived exactly 18 years after Michael Crichton’s death, and the estate has earned a reported $280 million from ‘ER’ under the deal at the heart of the dispute.

The legal fight lands as ‘The Pitt’ enjoys a remarkable run. Wyle won his second consecutive lead actor Emmy for the role, and the show took the top drama prize in back-to-back years.

Production on Season 3 is underway, and the new season is set to return on HBO Max in January 2027. For fans, the ruling is unlikely to change what appears on screen soon, but it does add another act to a courtroom drama that could last well beyond the next shift.

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