Michael Crichton's estate has cleared an early hurdle in its fight with Warner Bros. Television over The Pitt. A three-judge panel of California's 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled unanimously Wednesday that the HBO Max hospital drama and NBC's ER share enough in common for the estate's lawsuit to move forward, The Associated Press reports.
The suit, brought by Crichton's widow, Sherri Crichton, claims The Pitt is a rebranded version of an ER reboot she had turned down. The judges upheld a trial court's refusal to throw out the case, but they removed three people as defendants: star and producer Noah Wyle, creator John Wells and executive producer R. Scott Gemmill. All three worked on both shows. The panel found no evidence they knew the terms of the Crichton contract the suit says they interfered with.
What the court did and didn't decide
The ruling covers only this early stage of the case. The judges did not decide whether The Pitt is actually derivative of ER. They looked only at whether the two series were similar enough for the claim to proceed, pointing to their shared focus on the emergency room, their commentary on the health care system and their rapid, jargon-heavy pacing.
At the center of the dispute is a "frozen rights" clause Crichton secured for ER. According to the AP, it bars Warner Bros. from making sequels, remakes, spinoffs or other projects derived from the series without his consent, or his estate's consent after his death in 2008. The lawsuit alleges that after talks over an ER reboot fell apart, the studio went ahead with a show built on the same premise.
Warner Bros. Television said in a statement that it still considers The Pitt "an entirely original series" and looks forward to defending its position as the case continues. The defense has argued the shows share only generic similarities found in any story about overworked doctors.
The stakes are high on both sides. ER, which Crichton launched with a pilot script he wrote, ran on NBC from 1994 to 2009 and drew tens of millions of weekly viewers. The Pitt, which follows one shift in a Pittsburgh emergency department in real time, has won the Emmy for best drama for both of its first two seasons, and Wyle has won two best actor Emmys. The suit was filed two years ago, before The Pitt aired a single episode.
For more on the show's awards run, see Cup of Soul's 2025 Emmy Awards coverage.
