Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review.
Q: I’m glad “The Pitt” got renewed for another season. Will it be next year until we see new episodes?
— John, via Twitter
Rob: “The Pitt” is still rolling out its first season at 9 p.m. Thursdays through April 10 on Max. The goal with this show was to create a series that returns annually at a price point that’s not as high as some streaming shows that can cost up to $20 million per episode and have two-year gaps between seasons. Filming “The Pitt” almost entirely on a soundstage at Warner Bros. studio in Burbank, Calif., helps keep costs down.
Another goal is to have a larger episode order than many streaming series that can run as few as six episodes. With 15 episodes, “The Pitt” is closer to the once-standard 22-episodes-per-season for broadcast series. (Even some broadcast shows only get 13-18 episodes per season these days.)
In a recent Zoom interview, “The Pitt” executive producers R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells told me filming on season two will likely begin in mid-June (season one was filmed from July 2024 to February 2025).
“We haven’t gotten an official air date,” Gemmill said, “but we approach this assuming we are going to be on in January again, and they’ve told us they would like us to be.”
Q: I am a physician assistant in the Pittsburgh area. I just read your article on the show “The Pitt,” which I have thoroughly enjoyed as I have worked in the ER for the last 16 years. It is the most accurate ER show I have ever seen. However, I have noticed a complete lack of PAs on the show, which I know are present in Pittsburgh area hospitals. Is there a way to contact the writers of the show to plead my case of including PAs?
— Amanda, via email
Rob: “They have to get in line behind the respiratory therapists,” Gemmill joked when I asked about adding a PA character in season two, referring to another hospital cohort that wants to see their profession included in “The Pitt.”
“We’re going to continue to look at ways to make certain that everybody is represented who’s in health care because it’s an essential part of what’s happening,” Wells said.
Q: We just finished watching the first two episodes of “The Pitt.” Excellent and fast-paced show! But don’t they have legal as well as medical consultants? A family with a power-of-attorney cannot override the terms of a patient’s advanced directive. So the children of the elderly patient could not insist that the doctor place the patient on a breathing machine when the patient had a do-not-intubate directive. The doctor should have called the hospital attorney to set them straight. Before I retired, I would have been the hospital attorney handling that call.
— Rick, via email
Rob: Wells said this was addressed in dialogue in that episode.
“You’re trying to avoid liability,” said Wells, a 1979 Carnegie Mellon University grad. “So while you could say that two physicians can get together and go ahead and do it, the hospital administration is not happy when you do it.
“It’s really important to get both members of the family to accept and understand what the advanced directives from their family members are, and to try and get them to adhere to them. But this happens all the time. … This is America, and anybody can sue anybody for pretty much anything, so you want to try and avoid it.
“We did get some great feedback about that story from a physician who had a very similar situation happening,” Wells continued. “He knew he was going to have to have this tough conversation, knew he was going to have to go through the whole rigmarole of this. And when he went to talk to the adult children, they said, ‘Oh, we just saw this show, ‘The Pitt,’ and we just want to do comfort measures. We understand.’ It’s when we get those things that it really makes us feel like we’ve touched a nerve and maybe done a little bit of good.”
Q: Will “Say Yes to the Dress” return to TV with new episodes?
— Kim, via email
Rob:Last year a TLC representative refused to say if the show would ever return with new episodes, but earlier this month TLC announced “Say Yes to the Dress” will be back with new episodes at 8 p.m. April 5 on TLC.