The Pitt Season 2 Is On The Way, With A Promise That's Music To Our Ears

"The Pitt," the latest hit for HBO's proprietary streamer Max (which, I must stress, is not simply a spin-off of "ER") is already set to return for a second season. Now, in an interview with Vulture, Casey Bloys, the chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, has all but promised that the series will return annually. TV audiences who grew up before the advent of streaming know this is just how the medium used to work, so this is particularly welcome news from Bloys. The executive also spoke to the difficulty of making high-concept, big-budget shows that require a lot of time to craft and perfect ... and how "The Pitt" is just as excellent as those series, yet is made in such a way that it can actually release a season each year without much trouble.

Speaking to Bloys, Vulture's Josef Adalian asked him about each season of "The Pitt" being 15 episodes, which the executive described as a callback to older network procedurals. "We were very intentional about wanting a network-style show, meaning longer than seven or eight episodes," Bloys explained. "We specifically wanted a show that could go for 15 episodes each season because that's 15 weeks of engagement for us." Later on, Bloys got specific about why "The Pitt" taking 15 episodes to tell its story in season 1 is especially important for Max's ultimate bottom line:

"The other really important thing about this model, and is somewhat of a lost art [...] is, the second season will premiere in January of 2026, a year later. This model of more episodes cuts down on the gap between seasons. On the platform, we have shows like 'House of the Dragon,' 'The Last of Us,' and 'White Lotus,' which, because of how they're made, can take two years to make. What I love about something like 'The Pitt' is [that] I can get 15 episodes in a year. That's a really great addition to what we're already doing on the platform. And I'd like to do more shows in this model."

The gist of Casey Bloys' chat with Josef Adalian in Vulture came down to one thing: Max and Bloys made a big bet with "The Pitt," and it's paid off handsomely. As the show has continued, word of mouth has turned it into an enormous hit for the streamer (which, besides the comedy series "Hacks," hasn't really had a major success that isn't also a show that airs on HBO proper). Led by Noah Wyle and two other "ER" veterans — R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells, who worked on the creative team of NBC's massively popular medical drama — "The Pitt" uses the specific style of storytelling made famous by "24," letting each episode span one chronological hour. (The 15 "hours" in the first season encompass one shift in the emergency department of an overcrowded Pittsburgh hospital.)

Procedurals are huge on streaming services (shows like "Bones" and "Suits" are still really successful on streamers like Hulu and Netflix even though they ended years ago), so the fact that Bloys took a chance on a brand-new procedural that drops weekly harkens back to a previous age of television. So, how did it happen? "There was this idea of trying to figure out, 'What's an HBO show versus a Max show? How do you define them?'" Bloys told Adalian. "You know an HBO show. I can point to a lot of them and say, 'That's what it should feel like.' A Max show is something we were still trying to define. One of the thoughts was, 'Well, a network-type show is not something we would normally do for HBO.' One reason I'm very happy with 'The Pitt' is it is something I can point to concretely and say, 'That is a great example of a Max original.' It's doing something that an HBO show isn't, and now it's not just theoretical, it's a show that has done incredibly well on every metric — on reviews, on performance, on the audience it's bringing."

Clearly, "The Pitt" checks a lot of boxes. It's well made, brilliantly acted by Noah Wyle and his co-stars, and paced beautifully. Plus, it's one of the most accurate depictions of emergency rooms and the medical field in general that's been on TV since, well, "ER." That and, like I said, it's a classic procedural. In fact, Casey Bloys told Josef Adalian he actually reworked the way the show was released to make it more accessible to viewers and, potentially, even make it a new form of "appointment TV." HBO is no stranger to that term; when "Game of Thrones" and "Succession" had the coveted 9 P.M. Sunday slot on the premium network, viewers tuned in live in huge numbers to see the latest episodes. Bloys' goal, then, was to ensure that a Max show could get that same treatment.

"When I started with the Max platform, I said, 'Why are we releasing shows at midnight?' and I got some answer like, 'Well, when we report the numbers, you want as much data from the night before as possible, blah, blah, blah ...'" Bloys explained. "It didn't make a lot of sense. People like appointment television. Now look, the majority of the people watching 'The Pitt' or 'The White Lotus' will watch [on] premiere night. But I do think there is something significant about having a day and time for release. We've all gotten a bit more savvy about how and when people are watching on streaming and how to measure that. So, I believe in releasing shows on a Thursday night or Sunday night." 

Adalian smartly followed that up by asking if other Max exclusives like "Hacks" will also get the 9 P.M. treatment — according to Bloys, they will — and if more of the streamer's originals will similarly get previews at the end of each episode. "I just believe that, when we release weekly, it's a nice way to give audiences something to look forward to," Bloys remarked.

"The Pitt" does, in fact, drop at 9 P.M. EST on Thursdays on Max.