Sherri Crichton won a major step in the Pitt copyright lawsuit ruling on Wednesday, when a California appeals court said her case over alleged similarities between ER and The Pitt can continue. The panel’s decision keeps Michael Crichton’s estate in court after the defendants tried to end the case under California’s anti-SLAPP law.
The lawsuit was filed in August 2024 against Warner Bros. Television and the team behind The Pitt, with Sherri Crichton arguing that the show was built as an unauthorized reboot of Michael Crichton’s ER. That allegation is not just about a familiar setup; it is about whether the new series borrows protected expression rather than broad genre ideas.
Sherri Crichton and Warner Bros
Sherri Crichton said the dispute began earlier than the filing. She alleged that Warner Bros. started developing the reboot in 2020 without her knowledge, that she did not learn of the plans until 2022, and that she then entered negotiations that were later revoked.
Wednesday’s ruling also matters because the court did not treat the case as a routine similarity complaint. The three-judge panel wrote that there are “clear and numerous similarities” between The Pitt and ER, and added that those similarities fall “on a ladder of abstraction protecting only the more specific expressions.”
California appeals court ruling
“Making favorable inferences in Roadrunner’s favor, as we must, we find the details here suffice for a prima facie case,” the panel wrote. That is the point that kept the lawsuit alive: the court found enough at this stage to let the estate try to prove its claim rather than shutting the case down before discovery or trial.
Warner Bros. had moved to dismiss the case in August 2025, invoking California’s anti-SLAPP law, but the judge denied that bid and the defendants appealed. The court’s decision means the case remains active, with the legal fight now moving past the dismissal phase and into the part where the parties have to defend the substance of their positions.
The Pitt, ER and 11 Emmy Awards
The overlap the court saw is plain enough on the page: both shows follow a close-knit group of fictionalized doctors, both take place in an emergency room, and Noah Wyle appears in both. ER is set in Chicago, while The Pitt is set in Pittsburgh, a difference the panel did not see as enough to erase the alleged similarities.
The Pitt aired in January 2025, and its first two seasons have already won 11 Emmy Awards, including two best actor wins for Noah Wyle. That success gives the case more weight than a passing grievance; the estate is now challenging a series that has already turned into an awards player while the legal question remains whether the creators crossed the line from inspiration into protected copying.
On Oct. 27, Wyle said on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang that the team had been going to start down an ER reboot road that did not come to pass, which fits the picture that Sherri Crichton has been pressing since 2024. The next phase is the court fight itself, and the unanswered question is how much of The Pitt the estate can link to specific protectable choices rather than the broad medical-drama framework both shows share.
