On the surface, The Pitt season 2 in the works, it seems that emergency-room-hungry viewers may have finally got the prestige show they've been waiting years for.

Nearly The Pitt was first developed as a spin-off to ER. However, don't let that fool you into thinking the shows are the same if you plan on returning to the NBC series.

ER Is Very Different From The Pitt (Despite All Of Their Similarities)

The Two Shows Have Different Focuses And Sensibilities

Though both shows take place within the emergency room of a hospital, there are some significant differences. For one, ER takes place over many years. It's one of the selling points of the series. We, the audience, get to learn and grow with these characters as they face struggles inside and outside the hospital. Not everything has to be medicine-related, and how their work affects their lives over the years offers a slower-paced, but meaningful examination of how your career and personal lives intertwine and often mesh into one another.

The Pitt, on the other hand, takes place within a 15-hour shift, with each episode taking up roughly an hour of that period. It is so much more intense and fast-paced, and is likely a more accurate look at what working on an emergency floor actually feels like, with all the pain, exhaustion, and surprising moments of humor crammed into a short space. In that way, The Pitt is more focused on the doctors and the job at hand, while ER is more focused on patients, and the day-to-day work that's relatable to even those outside the medical profession.

How ER Paved The Way For Other Medical Dramas

ER Popularized Season-Long Arcs In Medical Shows

Though the stories and cases in ER are stretched out compared to The Pitt, that doesn't mean there aren't exciting medical cases and high stakes. The 15 seasons of ER introduced those themes and devices to modern television in a way that has become the standard. Medical dramas like The Pitt would find it hard to conjure up whole new ways to tell stories without dipping into what the ER imagined, so most of these shows have to settle with tweaking and crafting something new out of something old.

It was that commitment to making medical professionals human in the series with season-long arcs that medical drama owes a debt of gratitude to.

While The Pitt may more accurately showcase what actually working in an emergency room would look like, ER accurately showed how the toll of being in the medical profession (or any high-intensity profession) can drain, change, or even inspire someone. It was that commitment to making medical professionals human in the series with season-long arcs that medical drama owes a debt of gratitude to. Any medical drama that looks at the hospital as an all-encoming place of work, with nurses and staff included, almost certainly looks to ER as a model.

TV Has Changed A Lot, But ER Is Worth Watching In 2025

The Series Is Still Relevant And Engaging

ER ended in 2009 with a final season that was a solid goodbye to the series people had come to love. Since then, the TV landscape has changed a lot. Prestige TV is no longer the sole purview of HBO, miniseries are much more popular, different genres and styles can be explored; ER comes from an older era, but it's still certainly worth watching in 2025.

Noah Wyle stars in ER as John Carter and The Pitt as Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch.

The ensemble cast remains one of the most talented ones to appear on network television; the story arcs are as engrossing as ever, and while it can get somewhat soapy in later seasons, the drama still feels realistic, and you'll grow close enough to the characters to feel connected to what happens to them. ER is certainly not The Pitt, but it's absolutely worth the watch, even if you think only The Pitt-style medical drama is for you.