The Pitt’s Big Night

I have to be honest, at the beginning of the year, when The Pitt was first airing on HBO, I didn’t think it would be an Emmy darling. I thought the procedural format would work against it, but in the ensuing months, as the show’s popularity grew through its fifteen-week run—the benefit of weekly release schedules!—and then more and more industry people talked about the show, I started to hope The Pitt’s return to old-fashioned television production—weekly episodes, shot in Los Angeles, featuring a rotating cast of day players—would work in its favor, and boy, DID IT. 

The Pitt walked away with a total of eight wins out of twenty-seven nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

Katherine LaNasa won her first Emmy for portraying charge nurse Dana, and Noah Wyle won his first Emmy, too, after receiving five consecutive nominations for ER, it was The Pitt that finally made him a winner. He actually won twice, for acting and producing—from zero to sixty in the span of about five minutes of airtime, as his categories were announced back-to-back. Wyle continued his reputation for representation, wearing a tuxedo made by the scrubs company Figs, which provides the scrubs for The Pitt. He also used his speech to shout out shift workers—one thing about Wyle is he will always make his moments about someone else. It’s why everyone loves him.

As for Katherine LaNasa (in custom Jason Wu), she is returning to The Pitt for a second season, despite Dana seeming ready to quit after the end of the shift in season one. LaNasa’s win comes after a thirty-five-year career in which she has guest-starred on pretty much every TV show (she was in episode 106 of Justified, playing a murderous horse trainer). She was even in an episode of ER over twenty years ago!

She’s one of those actors who hung around and kept grinding, finally getting her defining role in her 50s, and I think her Emmy win has as much to do with her performance in The Pitt as it does her time in the trenches. She has worked for, auditioned for, everyone in that room. They know her. She’s theirs in a way Seth Rogen never will be. 

Between all the wins last night, and Shawn Hatosy’s win last weekend for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series—Hatosy is another grinder who knows a lot of people in that room—it was a big night for The Pitt. But they’ve got to get back to work, season two is coming in just four more months. I truly have not been so excited about the return of a television show since the Justified days.