Why Noah Wyle Found Writing An Episode Of The Pitt So Challenging

Spoilers ahead for "The Pitt" season 2, episode 6, "12:00 P.M."

The Emmy-winning HBO Max original "The Pitt" runs like a finely-tuned machine, which makes it particularly impressive that the show rotates through directors and writers for individual episodes. And because of the way the series is structured (specifically, each episode is meant to represent one "real-time" hour in a 15-hour shift), there has to be some uniformity. Clearly, then, showrunner R. Scott Gemmill and executive producer John Wells have a lot to consider when they enlist those aforementioned writers and directors. As such, it's not surprising that they asked their star and longtime collaborator Noah Wyle to step in, but what does feel surprising is that Wyle found the experience particularly difficult.

Wyle, who won an Emmy in September 2025 for playing Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch on the series, wrote the third episode of season 2, "9:00 A.M.," and directed episode 6, "12:00 P.M." As he told Saloni Gajjar for The AV Club in January, writing was lonely.

"Those jobs feel very different, but they're really not all that different," Wyle said regarding writing versus directing. "Writing is the most challenging one because you're creating something from nothing. You're taking something very dry, like a data point or a headline, and trying to put it into flesh and blood and into characters that will have an emotional impact on the audience."

So, what makes it lonely? As Wyle explained:

"And while it is collaborative in the room, the actual writing of it is fairly isolating. It's like a personal experience that I enjoy a lot. Then you get on the set to act and to direct, and that's a very collaborative experience to try and figure out what's appropriate and the most efficient and elegant way of executing it."

As Dr. Robby on "The Pitt," Noah Wyle is surrounded by a few veteran actors who have spent years in the industry just like him, including his fellow Emmy winners Shawn Hatosy and Katherine LaNasa (who play his night shift counterpart Dr. Jack Abbot and charge nurse Dana Evans, respectively). He's also surrounded by fresh faces like Isa Briones, Gerran Howell, Taylor Dearden, Shabana Azeez, and Patrick Ball, just to name a few of the newcomers who play doctors and medical students on the series. Wyle, in that same interview, said that his initial concern was that directing and starring in an episode of "The Pitt" would be an issue for his colleagues.

"As an actor, I've always had this ability to be focused on my little wedge of the pie but also see the pie in its entirety. Directing is just doing the opposite," Wyle mused. "It's looking at the pie in its entirety first before I look at my little wedge in the pie, but I've done it enough times now that it doesn't distract or throw me. The concern is really whether my directing the show will be distracting or problematic for the people around me." (Before this episode of "The Pitt," Wyle directed episodes of his shows "Falling Skies," "The Librarians," and "Leverage: Redemption.")

Unsurprisingly, Wyle had no issues with his talented co-stars. "I was really gratified to have the support of the cast and crew and have them feel like it was such a natural progression of events after season 1 that we could maybe do it again and succeed," he shared. This is particularly important because these two episodes in question are vital to the season.

Even with several more episodes set to air in the second season of "The Pitt," the two that Noah Wyle wrote and directed, respectively, feel particularly important. In "9:00 A.M.," Dr. Robby treats a woman named Yana (Irina Dubova), who was at home carrying a samovar full of piping hot liquid when she was startled by fireworks ... earning herself a serious burn. As Yana tells Robby, she was present (unharmed, but present) at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, and that's why the fireworks frightened her so badly that she dropped the samovar. Including this extremely real and deeply tragic piece of Pittsburgh history proves to be a wise move on Wyle's part — not just because it gives Robby a chance to connect with his patient, but because it helps ground the entire episode and honor the victims and bystanders who endured this all-too-real tragedy.

As for "12:00 P.M.," this is the episode where the emergency department endures a surprising loss — as one of the ER's "regulars," Louie Cloverfield (Ernest Harden Jr.), dies of a pulmonary hemorrhage. A man struggling with an addiction to alcohol who often finds himself needing treatment, Louie is deeply troubled but so endearing, and watching Robby and his coworkers grapple with losing him is unexpectedly touching. Wyle did a magnificent job on both of these episodes, and even though writing was isolating and directing had him worried, he should consider returning to these roles in season 3.

"The Pitt" is streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes premiering on Thursdays at 9 pm EST.