The Pitt‘s Noah Wyle couldn’t be happier to reunite with former ER costar George Clooney during the 2026 awards show circuit.
After The Pitt scored two wins at the 2026 Golden Globes on Sunday, January 11, Wyle, 54, reflected on the support he received, telling Us Weekly and other reporters in the press room, “[George] was sitting right by the stage. We all had to hug him on our way up.”
Wyle noted that he and Clooney, 64, already had a “lovely reunion” at the Movies for Grownups Awards with AARP in Los Angeles one night prior.
“This show has brought up a lot of old memories,” he continued. “There’s a lot of connected tissue involved with it.”
Wyle concluded: “Obviously, we’re interested in honoring the exact same community that we honored the first time around. It’s been really lovely hearing from my [former costars] who are all very pleased for us in this endeavor.”
Wyle and Clooney previously played doctors on ER, which aired from 1994 to 2009. The show followed the inner workings of an emergency room in a fictionalized version of Chicago’s Cook County Hospital. ER also starred Julianna Marguiles, Anthony Edwards, Eriq La Salle and Sherry Stringfield, with John Stamos, Mekhi Phifer and Linda Cardellini later joining the cast.
Noah Wylie and George Clooney in 1996. Vince Bucci/AFP via Getty Images
More than a decade after ER ended, Wyle returned to the medical drama world as the star and executive producer of The Pitt, which is described as “a realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in today’s America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh.”
Before the HBO Max series became an awards season success, Wyle opened up about getting the show off the ground.
“[Fellow EP] John [Wells], Max and Warner Brothers were on board to try to make use of this new platform of streaming, to see whether or not we could tell the story in a visually more arresting way than we did back in the ’90s,” Wyle explained to TV Line in January 2025. “It is a more photorealistic way than we were ever able to do, and in a more organic, performance-based way. Because you’re no longer to standards and practices and language [barriers], you really can paint with all the colors on the palette. The question isn’t ‘What can you show?’ Instead it is, ‘What should you show, in discretion and taste?’”
Wyle added that he found it “really gratifying” getting to play another doctor.
“I wanted it to feel like what it used to feel like — and what it hadn’t felt like for a long time. Could we make it feel that way again? John and Yana Grebenyuk R. Scott [Gemmill] were on board for that because they, too, have been looking for that feeling that we all [last] had 15 years ago, when we did this the first time,” he continued. “The work felt good, and we had a good time, and we liked each other while we did it, and everybody was respectful. It was inclusive, and it was groundbreaking. And we wanted to see if lightning could strike twice — and, in some ways, it already has.”
Clooney has since been supportive of Wyle’s success with The Pitt, sharing on a June 2025 episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers, “Have you guys seen that show? It’s so good. I have to say, we’ve been really dear friends since [ER] — since we did the pilot of the show.”
He continued: “He is just the most honorable, talented young man, [which] I get to say because I’m an old man. I cannot be happier for his success on the show. The show is just a beautiful show, and he does just a great job with it.”
Clooney recalled struggling to remember the medical terms during his time on ER, but Wyle “never had trouble.” Clooney teased, “He always could do it, and I hated him for that.”
The Pitt airs Thursdays on HBO Max.
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