Last Sunday, the HBO Max drama The Pitt emerged as one of the biggest winners at this year’s Emmys. With all that praise, it’s natural to wonder if the network plans to expand the series. In fact, some writers are eager to turn The Pitt into a franchise.
Those hopes, however, have already been shut down. HBO CEO Casey Bloys is against the idea. While he openly acknowledges the show’s success, he also knows The Pitt is “lightning in a bottle.”
Not only did beloved star Noah Wyle win Lead Actor in a Drama Series, but the show also took home Outstanding Drama Series. Other winners included Katherine LaNasa for Supporting Actress, Shawn Hatosy for Guest Actor, and Best Casting. The series beat favorites like Severance and HBO’s own The White Lotus and The Last of Us.
Having The Pitt break through is a really big deal for a lot of reasons…I never count on anything walking in, because you never know. I think it was pretty clear people felt that it was Severance versus The Pitt. You just never know how it’s going to turn out. But I’m really happy with how everything worked out.
Bloys told Variety about the victory
As pleased as he is with the wins, Bloys quickly rejected the idea of expanding The Pitt with a night shift spinoff or a more traditional drama.
No! Listen, when we decided to move forward with The Pitt, the idea was we’re going to try this, and we’re going to develop other shows in this model. They don’t have to be a spin-off. But that model, I think The Pitt showed that it could work for us. So we’ve been developing other types of shows: a cop show, a family show, etc. We will be developing those and trying to do it again. But as I’ve said, The Pitt is lightning in a bottle. So the idea that we’re going to do another one, that it’s going to work out, you never know. But it did prove that the model could work in streaming.
He praises the model used for network television and the one applied to The Pitt, but he’s more interested in using that model elsewhere
HBO is known for massive hits like Game of Thrones, Succession, The Sopranos, Chernobyl, and True Detective. It’s hard to compare The Pitt to those because they have a unique cinematic style that matches HBO’s high production values. The Pitt has more of a network TV look and feel, but it still managed to beat heavyweights on television’s biggest night.
The concept of the show being on essentially one set made the budget manageable. And you have a group of people who understand how to make 15 episodes, but also how to bring it back on an annual basis. That is the one thing I think that we’ve gotten away from in television, that ability to bring shows back on an annual basis. It’s understandable, as we have shows that are huge to do sometimes, like The Last of Us or House of the Dragon. The reason people love them is they’re huge spectacles with special effects and amazing locations. That’s great. But I think maybe as an industry we’ve focused a lot on those — and the bread-and-butter shows churning out high-quality episodes, week after week, is a really tough thing to do. For The Pitt to be recognized for what it’s done is especially gratifying. It’s always great to win awards, but it’s especially gratifying for the show that’s trying something that can be really hard.
Bloys also admitted the industry often focuses on large-scale shows, and The Pitt’s success might prove it’s a game-changer
Source: Movieweb