‘The Pitt’ to Air Uncut on TNT in December, With Nudity and ‘Graphic Medical Imagery’ Intact
“The Pitt” will not be sanitized for your protection. As Season 1 of the critically acclaimed, Emmy-winning HBO Max medical drama gets a basic cable run via TNT next month, no edits will be made to the intense, sometimes raw streaming version.
That means all of the show’s “graphic medical imagery,” including nudity, will remain intact and be seen on TNT as the show makes its linear premiere on Monday, Dec. 1, at 9 p.m. ET.
In a press release, TNT noted that the decision not to edit “The Pitt” for linear TV was in line with the show’s “core mission to accurately depict the realities of an emergency department.” Those “graphic medical imagery” scenes, including the depiction of a birth in Episode 11, “are integral to the show’s portrayal of the raw emotional toll that such work has on those who commit their lives to the medical profession,” the cabler said.
Acknowledging that such imagery is normally edited out from acquired fare on linear commercial TV, TNT said it would “include advisories at the top of each episode and coming out of commercial breaks.” There are no rules preventing TNT from airing the episodes uncut; as a cable network, TNT is not subject to the same content standards that the FCC requires of over-the-air broadcast TV outlets.
The full 15-episode Season 1 of “The Pitt,” which comes from John Wells Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, will air three back-to-back episodes a week on TNT from Dec. 1 to Dec. 29.
Channing Dungey, chairman and CEO of the Warner Bros. Television Group and US Networks, announced at the Warner Bros. Discovery upfront presentation in May that “The Pitt” would get a linear run on TNT this fall. The idea is to expose the show to new viewers who perhaps haven’t caught it yet on streaming, and also use the linear run as a bit of a marketing lead-up to the January premiere of Season 2 on HBO Max.
“All of us at ‘The Pitt’ are very excited that the TNT audience will have the opportunity to see our Emmy award-winning show beginning on December 1st,” exec producer John Wells said in a statement. “We’re also very grateful to TNT for allowing the series to be shown as it was initially shot and aired on HBO Max.”
Noah Wyle, Tracey Ifeachor, Patrick Ball, Katherine LaNasa, Supriya Ganesh, Fiona Dourif, Taylor Dearden, Isa Briones, Gerran Howell and Shabana Azeez star in “The Pitt” Season 1. Each episode follows Wyle’s character, Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, for a full hour during his 15-hour shift as the chief attendant in the hospital emergency room at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center.
R. Scott Gemmill created the series and serves as an executive producer. Wyle is also an executive producer along with Wells and Erin Jontow of John Wells Productions, Simran Baidwan and Michael Hissrich.
“The Pitt” Season 2 is currently in production for its January return on HBO Max. Per the streamer, “The Pitt” reached 20 million global viewers per episode. The show also made a splash at this year’s Primetime Emmys Awards, winning five — including including outstanding drama series, as well as first-time Emmy wins for Noah Wyle (drama lead actor), Katherine LaNasa (drama supporting actress) and Shawn Hatosy (drama guest actor). The show also won for outstanding drama series casting. “The Pitt” also won a Humanitas Prize this year for drama teleplay.
Meanwhile, the show is also having an impact on real-world medicine and healthcare conversations. According to a recent study by the USC Norman Lear Center, “The Pitt” has shifted the conversation on issues such as organ donation and end-of-life planning.
In Monday’s press release, TNT shared a quote from L. Anthony Cirillo, MD, FACEP, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), regarding the impact the show has had among first responders and medical professionals: “’The Pitt’ gives everyone a rare and authentic view of what it’s like to practice emergency medicine. This show offers a unique glimpse of the humanity of emergency care and what it takes to heal people within a broken system. The nation’s emergency physicians are incredibly proud of the show and grateful for the chance to be seen for who we are, the challenges we face, and the work we do every day. We deeply appreciate the commitment of the cast and crew that makes this show a huge success, especially the ACEP members involved in writing and production, and we are thrilled that ‘The Pitt’ will soon resonate with even more people, bringing new urgency to critical conversations about real health system fixes that emergency physicians and the millions of patients who rely on us need and deserve.”
“The Pitt” reps the latest HBO Max show to get a run on the Turner nets, following shows like HBO’s “True Detective: North Country,” “Hacks” and “Peacemaker.”
“Those were really good experiments for us,” Dungey said in May. “We’re learning a little bit about how to platform the shows, how to make them feel more like an event. These have been some very good learnings for us as we go towards The Pitt launch in Q4 this year. Doing things like that, it’s great for us, and it also is helping Max as well. If it drives viewers to Max for the new season, that’s a win/win.”
As for keeping the content intact, basic cable — which once mostly followed broadcast standards and practices, mostly because of advertiser concerns — has loosened its content restrictions in recent years, particularly when it comes to language. And those advertisers that once chaffed at TV-MA content have been more willing to embrace racy fare in order to appeal to younger viewers who aren’t concerned with a few F-bombs or raw images.
Here is a look at TNT’s marketing campaign for “The Pitt”:
That means all of the show’s “graphic medical imagery,” including nudity, will remain intact and be seen on TNT as the show makes its linear premiere on Monday, Dec. 1, at 9 p.m. ET.
In a press release, TNT noted that the decision not to edit “The Pitt” for linear TV was in line with the show’s “core mission to accurately depict the realities of an emergency department.” Those “graphic medical imagery” scenes, including the depiction of a birth in Episode 11, “are integral to the show’s portrayal of the raw emotional toll that such work has on those who commit their lives to the medical profession,” the cabler said.
Acknowledging that such imagery is normally edited out from acquired fare on linear commercial TV, TNT said it would “include advisories at the top of each episode and coming out of commercial breaks.” There are no rules preventing TNT from airing the episodes uncut; as a cable network, TNT is not subject to the same content standards that the FCC requires of over-the-air broadcast TV outlets.
The full 15-episode Season 1 of “The Pitt,” which comes from John Wells Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, will air three back-to-back episodes a week on TNT from Dec. 1 to Dec. 29.
Channing Dungey, chairman and CEO of the Warner Bros. Television Group and US Networks, announced at the Warner Bros. Discovery upfront presentation in May that “The Pitt” would get a linear run on TNT this fall. The idea is to expose the show to new viewers who perhaps haven’t caught it yet on streaming, and also use the linear run as a bit of a marketing lead-up to the January premiere of Season 2 on HBO Max.
“All of us at ‘The Pitt’ are very excited that the TNT audience will have the opportunity to see our Emmy award-winning show beginning on December 1st,” exec producer John Wells said in a statement. “We’re also very grateful to TNT for allowing the series to be shown as it was initially shot and aired on HBO Max.”
Noah Wyle, Tracey Ifeachor, Patrick Ball, Katherine LaNasa, Supriya Ganesh, Fiona Dourif, Taylor Dearden, Isa Briones, Gerran Howell and Shabana Azeez star in “The Pitt” Season 1. Each episode follows Wyle’s character, Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, for a full hour during his 15-hour shift as the chief attendant in the hospital emergency room at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center.
R. Scott Gemmill created the series and serves as an executive producer. Wyle is also an executive producer along with Wells and Erin Jontow of John Wells Productions, Simran Baidwan and Michael Hissrich.
“The Pitt” Season 2 is currently in production for its January return on HBO Max. Per the streamer, “The Pitt” reached 20 million global viewers per episode. The show also made a splash at this year’s Primetime Emmys Awards, winning five — including including outstanding drama series, as well as first-time Emmy wins for Noah Wyle (drama lead actor), Katherine LaNasa (drama supporting actress) and Shawn Hatosy (drama guest actor). The show also won for outstanding drama series casting. “The Pitt” also won a Humanitas Prize this year for drama teleplay.
Meanwhile, the show is also having an impact on real-world medicine and healthcare conversations. According to a recent study by the USC Norman Lear Center, “The Pitt” has shifted the conversation on issues such as organ donation and end-of-life planning.
In Monday’s press release, TNT shared a quote from L. Anthony Cirillo, MD, FACEP, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), regarding the impact the show has had among first responders and medical professionals: “’The Pitt’ gives everyone a rare and authentic view of what it’s like to practice emergency medicine. This show offers a unique glimpse of the humanity of emergency care and what it takes to heal people within a broken system. The nation’s emergency physicians are incredibly proud of the show and grateful for the chance to be seen for who we are, the challenges we face, and the work we do every day. We deeply appreciate the commitment of the cast and crew that makes this show a huge success, especially the ACEP members involved in writing and production, and we are thrilled that ‘The Pitt’ will soon resonate with even more people, bringing new urgency to critical conversations about real health system fixes that emergency physicians and the millions of patients who rely on us need and deserve.”
“The Pitt” reps the latest HBO Max show to get a run on the Turner nets, following shows like HBO’s “True Detective: North Country,” “Hacks” and “Peacemaker.”
“Those were really good experiments for us,” Dungey said in May. “We’re learning a little bit about how to platform the shows, how to make them feel more like an event. These have been some very good learnings for us as we go towards The Pitt launch in Q4 this year. Doing things like that, it’s great for us, and it also is helping Max as well. If it drives viewers to Max for the new season, that’s a win/win.”
As for keeping the content intact, basic cable — which once mostly followed broadcast standards and practices, mostly because of advertiser concerns — has loosened its content restrictions in recent years, particularly when it comes to language. And those advertisers that once chaffed at TV-MA content have been more willing to embrace racy fare in order to appeal to younger viewers who aren’t concerned with a few F-bombs or raw images.
Here is a look at TNT’s marketing campaign for “The Pitt”: