An appeals court ruled Wednesday that “ER” is similar enough to HBO’s “The Pitt” for Michael Crichton’s estate to continue its lawsuit against the Emmy Award-winning show.Sherri Crichton controls the estate of her husband, one of the creators of “ER” who died in 2008.
She filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros.Television and the creators of “The Pitt” in August 2024, alleging the team behind the new hit TV series was creating an unauthorized reboot of her husband’s show.
According to Wednesday’s filing, Crichton and Warner Bros.entered into an agreement in 1994 that the studio would not make any new material derivative of “ER” without his — or his estate’s — permission.
In the initial lawsuit, Sherri Crichton said she could not reach an agreement with “The Pitt” showrunners to create a reboot of “ER,” which aired on NBC from 1994 to 2009 and earned nearly two dozen Emmy Awards.She alleged in the suit that Warner Bros.
began developing the reboot in 2020 without her knowledge and that she didn’t learn of the plans until 2022.In 2022, she said she engaged in negotiations with the studio, but that the terms were revoked, halting those negotiations.
In the lawsuit, she alleged they should also have halted production of “The Pitt.” Warner Bros.filed a motion to dismiss Sherri Crichton’s case in August 2025, citing California’s anti-SLAPP law, which aims to protect citizens from lawsuits that target free speech.
A judge denied the motion, allowing the suit to move forward.The defendants — who also include star Noah Wyle, “The Pitt” executive producer John Wells and showrunner Scott Gemmill — then took it to a California appeals court, which again sided with Sherri Crichton on Wednesday.
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