Yes, George Clooney has seen The Pitt and he loves it. During an appearance on Monday’s Late Night With Seth Meyers, Clooney sang the praises of his former ER co-star Noah Wyle’s new medical drama.
“It’s so good, and I have to say: We’ve been really dear friends since [ER] — since we did the pilot of the show,” the Oscar winner told the chat show host. “He is just the most honorable, talented young man, [which] I get to say because I’m an old man, and I cannot be happier for his success on the show. The show is just a beautiful show, and he does just a great job with it.” Clooney and Wyle worked together on ER for five seasons before Clooney left to focus on his film career.
The Pitt is a medical procedural drama that was created and produced by R. Scott Gemmill, with whom Wyle and Clooney worked with on ER. The popular HBO Max show follows the staff at an emergency department as they try to overcome the hardships of long hours, staff shortages, and the lack of funding.
The comparisons between ER and The Pitt were always going to come considering Wyle’s involvement. The widow of creator Michael Crichton also thought this as she sued the makers of The Pitt and claimed the HBO Max series was nothing more than an ER revival “just under a different name” to escape their obligation to give her late husband a “created by” credit. Wyle has always stressed that the show doesn’t “retread” the '90s medical drama.
Clooney also reminisced about his time playing Doug Ross in ER, and how he struggled to remember the medical jargon heavy script. He explained to Meyers that the medial show would often do “oners” where the actors would have to get through 12 pages of dialogue and nobody could mess it up or the entire scene would reset. “I’m at the very end of the oner, at page 12, and I have one line — supraventricular tachyarrhythmia — and I’m telling you, I never got it! Literally! We did, like, 40 takes, and the rest of the cast is, like, ‘Are you f****** kidding me?'”
Clooney praised Noah Wyle, who plays Dr. Robby in The Pitt for never having an issue remembering the sometimes-complicated medical terminology. “He always could do it, and I hated him for that,” the Tony nominee joked about working with Wyle. The pair worked together on ER for five seasons. While Clooney has gone on to be one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood, to many of us he will always be Dr. Ross.
Clooney and Wyle were last seen together at the April premiere of Clooney’s Broadway show, Good Night, and Good Luck. The duo was joined by Anthony Edwards and Julianna Margulies for a mini-ER reunion. “I’ve seen quite a few of the old cast members and they’ve been really lovely,” Clooney told Meyers. At the Gotham Awards, Wyle told E! News that George watched The Pitt, “which I think was his way of getting me to come see his show, which worked.”
The Pitt is currently available for streaming on HBO Max. Expect season 2 coming your way in January 2026.