In the teaser for season 2 of The Pitt, the camera flashes to an infant in the ER before it pans to a stumped looking Dr. Samira Mohan. For creator Scott R. Gemmill, the storyline is a bit of a nightmare, especially considering how the HBO Max drama is structured to follow a day in the life of a Pittsburgh trauma center over 15 episodes.
“Some genius came up with an idea of what to do with a baby this year over 15 hours,” admits a deadpan Gemmill, who spoke about the new season at the recent Sublime Primetime Drama panel at the Writers Guild of America. “That’s a whole season. You’ve got to use multiple babies. They can only work for 20 minutes … By the time the shift is over, which will be in January, this baby’s going to be walking to craft service by himself.”
It isn’t the first time the drama has used small children to help further the story about those harried, frontline workers; one of the first season episodes that was nominated for an Emmy this year involves the drowning of a young child and how it impacts her 4-year-old sister. EP Joe Sachs penned the episode titled “2 p.m.” and found it especially poignant because it involves Dr. Melissa King (Taylor Dearden) and how she came up with a unique way to help the girl deal with her sister’s death.
“Mel has a sister on the autism spectrum, who she cares for, so she could relate to this situation with two sisters and their closeness and the loss,” explained Sachs, who joined Gemmill on the recent Sublime Primetime Drama panel. “She went to the gift store and brought in a teddy bear to this 4-year-old girl, who was kind of perplexed as to what’s happening. Mel says, ‘you can’t see your sister now, but you can say anything you want to the teddy bear, and I’ll bring the teddy bear in to your sister, and the teddy bear will tell her everything that you’ve said.’ That performance by Mel and the little girl, I mean, I’m tearing up now over how she showed her compassion, and her reflecting on her own life. It was just so powerful.”
But working with babies is a whole different challenge, admits Gemmill, who initially joked on the panel about always wanting to avoid kids and animals.
“I’m going to go through many babies this year,” he said. “So if you know anyone who’s pregnant and they want to have their baby on TV, please come see us.”
The Pitt EP Joe Sachs was the one who penned the episode last season involving the 4-year-old girl. The episode titled “2 p.m.” is especially poignant because it involves Dr. Melissa King (Taylor Dearden) coming up with a unique way to help the child deal with her sister’s death.
HBO Max is planning a January 2026 release for Season 2. Meanwhile, The Pitt is up for multiple Emmys this year, including Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Actor (Noah While), Outstanding Writing (Sachs for “2 p.m.” and Gemmill for the pilot) and Outstanding Supporting Actors (Katherine LaNasa and Shawn Hatosy).