‘The Pitt’ Defied Odds by Going Back to the Future

There was a look of shock at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

“Wow,” said Noah Wyle, grabbing his first Emmy more than three decades after his career began. “Oh my God,” mouthed Katherine LaNasa after she had won best supporting actress. “This is insane,” said R. Scott Gemmill, a veteran TV producer and creator of “The Pitt” upon accepting the Emmy for best drama, television’s biggest prize.

As overwhelming as it all was to everyone associated with “The Pitt,” the show’s big Emmy wins may have sent a bigger shock to the entertainment world.

Emmy voters made a loud statement on Sunday night that there was a desire in the industry for something quite different in the TV business. Those voters have repeatedly chosen high-concept, high-priced shows for much of the past decade. But “The Pitt” is a throwback to the network-style series that used to dominate the television landscape.

“The Pitt” not only defied the odds by becoming a hit for HBO Max, the streaming service that took a flier on it. It also bested “Severance,” the significantly better-funded Apple TV+ series that might as well have been invented in a lab as the sort of prestige drama that has won best drama at the Emmys year after year during the so-called Peak TV era.

“It’s great to have a show like ‘The Last of Us,’ it’s fantastic to have a show like ‘The White Lotus’ or ‘The House of the Dragon,’ but I think we need more shows that return on an annual basis,” said Casey Bloys, the chairman of HBO Max, at the company’s after-party. “That was the promise of television. You were going to live with these characters not only over multiple hours but multiple years, and every year, you’re going to check back in.

“That was one of the promises of television that maybe we have gotten away from,” he continued. “I think ‘The Pitt’ shows you can go back to it, and you can do it in a really impressive way.”

Mr. Bloys gave a green light to “The Pitt” in early 2024, as the industry became locked in a contraction and executives slashed budgets. He recognized what many in the industry were starting to wake up to: older basic cable and network series like “Suits” and “Criminal Minds” were at the top of up the year-end Nielsen most-watched streaming charts. The shows may have seemed fuddy-duddy to contemporary streaming-era television executives but they clearly struck a chord among the public — and they were not expensive to make.

At first, HBO Max tried to reboot “ER,” but after running into complications with that — as well as spawning an ongoing lawsuit — they moved to a new set of characters in a new setting.

“The Pitt” centers on the doctors, residents and nurses confronting a difficult climate in a post-pandemic world. Many medical professionals admired it for accurately depicting their professional lives, and audiences began to gravitate to it, too.

“This show has become a sort of lighthouse show for people who want to believe that there are people in these hospitals who are dedicated, intelligent, compassionate, doing this kind of angelic work,” Mr. Wyle said about an hour after he won best actor.

Ratings grew every week after a new episode premiered earlier this year. It became a genuine hit, and scored a strong 95 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

“One of the things that happened with streaming is the platforms were constantly searching for a new and big and noisy show because that helps them acquire subscribers,” said Channing Dungey, the chairman of Warner Bros. television group, the studio behind “The Pitt.” “But that’s not what audiences want. Audiences want to be able settle in with characters and build those relationships with them over time. They’re craving that more than anything else.”

It also seems, at least for the moment, that’s what the TV industry wants. Over the weekend at Emmys parties, executives were widely discussing “The Pitt” and “Severance” best drama showdown, and what it would mean if “The Pitt” actually pulled off a victory.

Series like “Severance” are not going anywhere. The Apple TV+ show “The Studio,” for instance, a high-gloss, prestige series with a starry pedigree, won best comedy and set a record for most wins by a comedy in a single Emmys year. Seth Rogen, the star and a creator of “The Studio,” took home four Emmys on Sunday.

HBO Max will also continue creating the prestige shows that have long been its bread and butter, including “The White Lotus.” But the network is preparing more series with a formula similar to “The Pitt.” The network, for instance, is getting closer to greenlighting both a broadcast-style family drama and a police show.

Mr. Bloys, standing in a corner at the after party, recounted how someone had already asked him that evening what shows were coming up for HBO Max, and how the streamer’s Emmy prospects looked for next year.

“I had a moment of panic, as I usually do,” he said. “But as somebody pointed out to me: We now have the Emmy front-runner going into next season. Because it’s coming back in January.”