Noah Wyle Feels ‘Profoundly Sad and Disappointed’ That ER Creator’s Widow Sherri Crichton Sued Him Over The Pitt

The Pitt might be one of the best new shows of 2025, but the creator of ER’s estate thinks it bears too close of a resemblance to the long-running medical drama.

Noah Wyle stars in and executive produces The Pitt more than 15 years after his run in ER ended. Before The Pitt premiered on Max in January, ER creator Michael Crichton’s widow Sherri Crichton sued Wyle, 53, The Pitt creator R. Scott Gemmill, executive producer John Wells and Warner Bros Television over breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and intentional interference with contractual relations.

Wyle told Variety he feels “profoundly sad and disappointed” by the lawsuit, which calls The Pitt “a shameful betrayal of Crichton and his legacy” and “a callous disregard for Crichton’s inception of ER.”

“This taints the legacy, and it shouldn’t have,” Wyle said of the suit. “At one point, this could have been a partnership. And when it wasn’t a partnership, it didn’t need to turn acrimonious. But on the 30th anniversary of ER, I’ve never felt less celebratory of that achievement than I do this year.”

An ER reboot had been in the works, but Warner Bros. Television couldn’t come to terms with Sherri about it, which put an end to the project. As a result, “we pivoted as far in the opposite direction as we could in order to tell the story we wanted to tell,” Wyle told Variety. “And not for litigious reasons, but because we didn’t want to retread our own creative work.”

Still, the August 2024 suit claims, “The Pitt is ER. It’s not like ER, it’s not kind of ER, it’s not sort of ER. It is ER complete with the same executive producer, writer, star, production companies, studio and network as the planned ER reboot. No one has been fooled.”

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

Wyle acknowledges that one element of ER carried over to The Pitt: the relationships built between the cast and crew. “We see each other fall in love, get married, have children, get divorced,” he said. “Those relationships transcend the screen and become palpable to an audience who wants to be part of that family. I’ve tried to create it in every job I’ve gone on, but with varying degrees of success.”

Wyle, who played Dr. John Carter on ER for 13 seasons, wanted to portray a doctor again in response to messages he received from first responders during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They were saying things like, ‘Carter, where are you? It’s really hard out here,’” the five-time Emmy nominee said.

As a result, Wyle “wanted to make a show about a health practitioner that we invest a tremendous amount of trust and belief and admiration in,” he said. “And when the shit hits the fan, we are expecting that white knight to come charging in on his horse. Then the horse comes in without its rider, and we don’t know where the hero is, and it’s because … he’s on the floor.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.