The Pitt star Noah Wyle addresses medical drama's ICE storyline and potential season 3 time jump

The second season of The Pitt is now releasing episodes weekly in the UK, while the medical drama has almost finished airing in full in the US.

While most viewers in the UK will no doubt be unaware of many of the storylines yet to come in the later episodes, one they may well have heard about centres around a group of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, who enter the hospital.

In the storyline, they are seen making patients and staff feel unsafe, in a reflection of real life news stories that have been reported across the US. However, executive producer John Wells recently revealed that he was told, during conversations with HBO, to make sure the storyline was balanced.

Dr Robby star Noah Wyle was informed about this discussion later, and he said of it, when speaking in a new interview with Variety: "The negotiation was being driven by political reasons, creative reasons, fear, uncertainty, all sorts of legitimate reasons."

"I’ll be honest and say that I was concerned about the edits we were making initially," he explained. "When I saw what we had done, I actually think we arrived at something more elegant and a little bit more restrained, which leaves a little bit more ambiguity in it than we may have started out with. I think it’s healthier for the storyline in the long run.

"It ended up being show the bear, don’t poke the bear in a lot of ways, which is enough. Because the context came out after we’d filmed that episode, we didn’t have to do half of what we had done. That had already been imprinted into the mind of most Americans."

In the same interview, Wyle also addressed the show's already confirmed third season, and spoke about whether there would be a significant time jump between seasons 2 and 3.

Each season takes place across a 15-hour shift at the hospital, and there was a time jump of ten months between seasons 1 and 2. It sounds like the jump between seasons 2 and 3 will be shorter.

"The only time jump we’re interested in making is to get into a different weather season, to get into a slightly different mode of cases that come with a change in weather," Wyle said. "If that was summer, then what happens in the winter when you get cold, snow and black ice."

The Pitt season 1 is available to watch on HBO Max in the UK now. Season 2 continues releasing new episodes weekly on Thursdays.

Add The Pitt to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.

Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.