The team behind the HBO Max series The Pitt has been sued by the owner of rights to the series ER due to the similarities in the shows, and a US appeals court has decided that Sherri Crichton can moved forward with the lawsuit.
Crichton is the widow of Michael Crichton, creator of ER, which premiered in 1994 and ran for 5 seasons until 2009. According to a court filing, Michael Crichton entered into an agreement with Warner Bros. Television in 1994, saying that the company “would not make works derivative of ER without his agreement.” When Warner Bros. moved forward with The Pitt in 2025, Roadrunner JMTC LLC, controlled by Sherri Crichton, sued for breach of contract, saying the two shows are similar enough that the series was “intentionally interfering with the 1994 Agreement.
Warner Bros. filed an anti-SLAPP motion, aiming to have the court agree that the lawsuit was meritless, saying that the two shows aren’t similar enough to be a breach of the agreement.
A three judge panel has denied the Warner Bros. appeal. However, the court dismissed a related claim against the show’s creators – Noah Wyle, John Wells, and R. Scott Gemmill – saying that they are not responsible for violating the agreement.
Sherri Crichton filed the lawsuit in August 2024, before the series premiered. The Crichton estate claimed that the studio wanted to reboot ER but negotiations fell through, leading to the creation of a new show with many similarities. Those similarities, Crichton and Roadrunner argued, include the emergency room setting, the structure of the show being broken into specific time periods, similar language, and impact on viewers.
The ruling will allow the lawsuit to move forward and go to court. In a statement following the ruling, Sherri Crichton said, “I am deeply gratified by the Court of Appeal decision and look forward to discovery and to our case, which affects writers, creators, and their families and estates, being presented to a jury.”
