“People Will Be Watching 20 Years From Now”: Max Executive Discusses The Streamer’s Intentions With The Pitt

Max executive Casey Bloys discusses the plans and intentions for The Pitt. The Pitt is an original medical series featuring ER actor Noah Wyle. It chronicles the stories of a group of physicians at a Pittsburgh hospital while they balance an intense work environment with their personal lives. In addition to Wyle, the show's cast includes Tracy Ifeachor, Fiona Dourif, Taylor Dearden, and Gerran Howell. The Pitt has gotten great reviews, scoring a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Screen Rant's Nick Bythrow sang the praises of episode 3, giving it 9 out of 10 stars and complimenting its tension.

Speaking with Vulture, Bloys explains Max's goals with The Pitt. The interviewer points out that far fewer long-running shows, with 100 or 200 episodes, are being made these days. Bloys agrees, and explains that "a library doesn't just grow on trees," creating the need for new "library shows." Streamers like Max and Netflix cannot just "rely on what's already there." He connects these ideas specifically to The Pitt, which was creating a "library series that people will be watching 20 years from now." Check out the full quote from Bloys below:

Netflix has had the benefit of everybody’s library. We’ve all sold them library shows, so they haven’t had to necessarily worry about it. But if you’re thinking long-term — a library just doesn’t grow on trees. The idea with The Pitt is, if you want another Grey’s Anatomy or West Wing or Cold Case, or name your long-running procedural, you’ve got to replenish it. And in order to do that, you have to specifically develop these kinds of shows.
You can’t just rely on what’s already there, especially with network television doing less and less. Networks used to be a great source of long-running procedurals with many episodes, but the network business is more and more challenged, and streaming just hasn’t prioritized it. If you want to come up with your next tentpole library series that people will be watching 20 years from now, you have to go out and consciously do it.

What This Means For The Pitt

Short-Term Shows Have Left TV In Crisis

Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) glancing sideways in The Pitt Season 1 Ep 12

Bloys is not the only person to speak out recently about the changing landscape of TV. A Luminate report from earlier this year noted that more shows are transitioning to "planned ending" series, which consist of either miniseries or shorter-term projects. The analysts argued that networks needed to move away from this model, saying it is "not a sustainable strategy for the industry." Bloys's commentary aligns with this analysis, maintaining the importance of developing new library shows.

Series like Grey's Anatomy and 9-1-1 have proved that the medical and/or emergency-based procedural series are a great way to maintain sustained interest. Not only does The Pitt fall into this genre classification, but it has been largely praised, with some real-life doctors calling it one of the most accurate medical series of all time. It is no surprise, then, that the series has captivated audiences, making the long-term success of the series a lot more likely.

Our Take On Bloys' The Pitt Plan

The Pitt Benefits From Being An Original Series

The Pitt has been a much more successful return to the library television format than some other recent attempts. The spinoff Suits: LA was not as well received, and may not be long in this world as it has been scorned by some former Suits fans. The Pittbenefits from being an original procedural rather than a spinoff, crafting its own niche and characters while still falling into the audience-tested format for successful library TV shows.

Source: Vulture