**HBO Max Renews 'The Pitt' for Season Three Ahead of Season Two Premiere**
HBO Max has renewed 'The Pitt' for a third season before the premiere of the hit medical drama's second season on Thursday. The announcement was made by HBO and HBO Max Chairman and CEO, Casey Bloys, during the series' season two premiere event in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.
'The Pitt' season two unfolds 10 months after season one, over the July 4 weekend, giving Noah Wyle's Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch and the other characters time to grapple with the aftermath of the mass shooting and other incidents from season one.
After Robby's emotional breakdown at the end of season one, Wyle and creator R. Scott Gemmill have hinted that the second season will explore his journey of healing as he seeks treatment for his own trauma, as put by Gemmill.
The series, which has been praised for its accurate portrayals of medicine and the challenges faced by frontline healthcare workers, will also delve into how high-profile real-life changes, including layoffs and funding losses, play out in season two.
In addition to Wyle, the series, created by fellow 'ER' alum R. Scott Gemmill, stars Patrick Ball (Dr. Langdon), Katherine LaNasa (Dana Evans), Supriya Ganesh (Dr. Mohan), Fiona Dourif (Dr. McKay), Taylor Dearden (Dr. King), Isa Briones (Dr. Santos), Gerran Howell (Whitaker), Shabana Azeez (Javadi), and Sepideh Moafi (Dr. Al-Hashimi). Despite traumatic experiences and exits from the emergency department in season one, LaNasa's charge nurse Dana and Ball's Dr. Langdon both return in season two.
The first season of 'The Pitt' won five Emmys, including Best Drama Series, Best Actor (Wyle), and Supporting Actress (LaNasa). The series is produced by John Wells Productions with Warner Bros. TV. Gemmill, Wells, and Wyle executive produce alongside JWP's Erin Jontow, Joe Sachs, Simran Baidwan, and Michael Hissrich.
'The Pitt' returns to HBO Max almost exactly one year after its premiere, debuting on Thursday, Jan. 8, at 9 p.m., with new episodes of the 15-episode season dropping weekly until the April 16 finale.
Bloys has also indicated that 'The Pitt' is a model of the kinds of series they aim to produce as Max Originals. "I can say now that Max Originals serve a very specific purpose: We are leaning into more cost-efficient, yet elevated and high-quality series with a greater number of episodes that can return each year," Bloys said at a fall press event. "These originals are designed to attract audiences that are adjacent to the typical HBO fans, while also feeding our strategy to deliver 52 weeks of new programming a year. 'The Pitt,' of course, was our first shot, and we really did catch lightning in a bottle."
As for how long 'The Pitt' will last, Gemmill told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the season one finale that he's happy to keep going until someone tells him to stop. "I think a very important part of my job is to keep a show on the air as long as possible," he says. "Because this is still a business. The business has been hit pretty hard between COVID and the strikes... I will always, I tend to, work on a show until they take my chair away and shut the lights out, because I think that’s really important to give people the opportunity to work, and to work in Los Angeles and to work the sensible hours that we do. It’s really important."
