‘The Pitt' Team Reacts To 13 Emmy Nominations For Their HBO Max Series

Forbes

2 days ago

In a sea of television medical drama series, past and present, The Pitt on HBO Max is quickly paving its own unique path within modern episodic storytelling. With season one taking place over one day's time within 15 episodes, it tells the story of a group of frontline workers at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania emergency department, as they strive to take care of their many patients, while also trying to deal with their own lingering issues.
The creative team behind The Pitt has a lot to celebrate right now, with its 13 Emmy nominations, including 'Outstanding Drama Series' and individual acting nominations for Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa and Shawn Hatosy.
While taking a momentary break in-between filming season two, I spoke with several members of this creative team at the Televerse festival and the HBO Max Emmy Nominee Celebration this past weekend in Los Angeles, California, they all had nothing but excitement around their show being acknowledged by their industry peers.
Wyle, who plays Dr. Michael 'Robby' Robinavitch, said of the show's 13 Emmy nominations, 'It feels incredibly gratifying. It feels extremely validating to the hard work we put into season one. It feels appropriately spread out among enough departments that you really feel like this is a collective effort of some really talented people. After a couple decades of not being invited to this party, it feels lovely to have my work recognized that way.'
LaNasa, who plays Charge Nurse Dana Evans on the series, said of the Emmy nominations, 'Thirteen is now lucky! You know, just beyond exciting, really. I just feel very humbled by it. This particular award, it's just actors voting for actors. I'm lucky - I'm grateful.'
Hatosy, who plays on Dr. Jack Abbot on The Pitt, said of his Emmy nomination, 'It's overwhelming - it means so much to me, it really does. It's not something that you seek, right? You just sort of do the work and the fact that - yes, me and the cast and the whole show is being recognized - is so satisfying because it is a good show that has a lot of important things to say. So, it's landing critically, it's landing popularly among the masses. I'm proud of it and the fact that it has this success means we get to make a lot more, and it's a show done here in LA, which we don't have a lot of those. So, I'm hoping that some of the people that make the decisions, see how the show is working and let it be a trendsetter. We could fill the studios up with - we're not breaking the bank, making the show. This works, man! It's proven that it works and I hope it changes the business.'
The Pitt creator R. Scott Gemmill, who is also Emmy-nominated for his writing on the series, also shared with me, 'I mean, when you do a new show, you just hope it doesn't suck and you don't get crucified in the press. Even just a nomination would've been amazing, so getting 13 - it's crazy. It's great!'
Cathy Sandrich Gelfond, Emmy-nominated for The Pitt casting, said, 'I can't tell you how truly happy I am for all these people that have worked so hard at every detail and have given so much. It's meaningful - beyond words.'
Erica Berger, nominated alongside Gelfond for casting, added: 'It's just such an honor to be recognized in this way and for the show to be, as well. It just means so much to all of us.'
Amanda Marsalis, Emmy-nominated director on The Pitt, said of these nominations, 'There's two aspects of it - one is a working family, because it truly is - The Pitt is a family. It feels really good and very exciting that so many people from The Pitt got acknowledgement - and also, that everyone on The Pitt feels that it's their acknowledgement, as well, right? It extends through every aspect of our show. And then, I basically just keep saying - it's job security. In these like scary times, it's really exciting to know that you might actually get another job, you know?'
Fiona Dourif, who plays Dr. Cassie McKay, said of the team's nominations, 'It's a surreal, wonderful ride. I feel like I won a lottery. Everybody really likes each other on the show and then to have it validated - it just feels like it's lightning in a bottle.'
Taylor Dearden, who plays Dr. Melissa King, said of the HBO Max nominations, 'It's a lot! Thirteen is a lot - especially all the different departments that were nominated, I think is extremely special.'
Patrick Ball, who plays Dr. Frank Langdon, joked, 'I would've been happy with 12 [nominations]! No, it's really exciting - this was all a big experiment that we didn't know if it was going to work or not - and the fact that audiences have responded the way that they have, and it's getting this sort of critical response that it's getting.'
Shabana Azeez, who plays Dr. Victoria Javadi, said of the The Pitt nominations, 'Oh, it means everything. The show had a really grassroots, word-of-mouth sort of start. People sort of found it organically and realized that they loved it and connected to it, and it made them feel things. And so, to come from there full circle to the Emmys is like the dream.'