Shawn Hatosy is getting ready to clock back in for a shift at “The Pitt.”
The medical drama, which premiered in January 2025, is on a fast track rarely seen in streaming shows these days. Filming for Season 2 is well underway, and a teaser for the sophomore outing dropped Aug. 21. But eagle-eyed fans may have noticed that Hatosy’s character, the internet’s favorite night shift attending, Dr. Jack Abbot, wasn’t seen in any of the clips.
Shabana Azeez, who stars in the show as medical student Victoria Javadi, joked on her Instagram that Abbot is in a “retirement home.” Hatosy has another explanation.
“I have not shown up yet,” he tells TODAY.com. “I’m still about to, so getting prepared for that. I know the cast and crew have been diligently kicking away for a couple months now. So I’m getting ready.”
The 15-episode procedural “The Pitt” has received acclaim for its unconventional format โ each episode reflects one hour of an emergency room shift, with the whole season comprising just one day in the life. Season 1 opens with senior emergency attending Dr. Michael โRobbyโ Robinavitch, played by Noah Wyle, arriving for his shift, relieving a distraught Abbot. In the first episode, Robinavitch finds Abbot on the roof, who asks why they continue to show up at the grueling job each day.
By the end of the season, Abbot makes a triumphant return to the emergency department in the wake of a mass casualty shooting. He ends the day answering his own questionย โ “Weโre the bees that protect the hive,” he says โ effectively solidifying his character’s arc and making Abbot a “fully formed character,” Hatosy says.
“I feel like I have his backstory down to this point,” Hatosy says. “I do believe that they will throw a monkey wrench into that.”
Below, Hatosy previews what could be in store for Abbot in Season 2, unpacks his character’s buzzy chemistry with Dr. Samira Mohan (Supriya Ganesh) and reflects on being nominated for an Emmy Award for best guest actor in a drama series.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
If you can say, is Abbot still on the night shift? And if you can’t, how do you react to fans wanting a 24-episode season and wanting to see more of the night shift?
I don’t actually know the answer to the first question.
I love the show. I love the character. I think that the night shift has a lot of elements that people respond to. I think it takes a certain type of individual to decide to work nights, and Abbot would be the leader of that because his therapist says he finds comfort in the darkness. I would love to check in once the original “Pitt” is up and running, because that’s the first priority. But if the writers have the bandwidth for it, I mean, I would love it.
What do you credit to why the show is resonating so much?
I think No. 1, the medicine. We don’t dumb it down in any way. We treat it as it is. So I think the audience, even though they may not understand it โย I certainly don’t understand some of the things that are happening โ there’s a trust there. You expect them to follow it, and they do.
I also think the immersive feeling of the narrative being one day, I think it adds to the excitement and the adrenaline. And then the characters are all so well drawn. Each has their own distinct point of view, and people respond to that. I also think that they’re all inherently decent people working there, and in a world that’s very divided right now, they have pledged to take care of everybody and do their job and save lives.
You are directing Episode 9. I know the cast teases each other a lot on social media โ
They do. I’m the target of that sometimes.
Are you nervous at all about directing your cast members?
Oh yeah, of course. There’s always a healthy dose of nerves and fear when you’re both directing and acting. The first time you present a character on a TV show, it’s terrifying because you’re like, “Whatever I do now I have to commit to for however many years this goes.” So there’s just a lot of anxiety. With directing, you’re responsible for so many departments and ideas, and it’s definitely scary, but that is what keeps you working so hard. It’s a good scary. It’s the kind that you need to sort of give you that lift.
But like you said, listen, I’m a performer. So there’s a language that actors have with each other. So my first point of attention is always going to be towards the performance, because that’s where I come from. So even though they may call me old and a grandpa and chronically online, or whatever they say, I will power through it.
In Season 1, fans really latched on to Abbot’s dynamic with Dr. Mohan. You’ve said that in some of those scenes, you think he was flirting. In your opinion, what draws him to her and why does their dynamic work so well?
I’ve said it before, there was a scene early on where he talks about how she’s one of the smartest people here. I think that he’s not just saying that, I think he believes that. He just respects her. I think he sees her as the future of the ER. There’s some light flirting happening, and it’s definitely layered into the script. Some writers may say, “No, we were just putting stuff there.” But it seems obvious to me. I think that the scene with the pigtail catheter, where he’s … sort of insisting that she do it, even though there’s only one case in history of this exact procedure that’s ever been done โ it just shows how much he respects her. And sometimes that can turn into something more, you know, when you’re working together.
Have you talked with Supriya (Ganesh) about that dynamic and the fan response?
We haven’t. I’m actually curious to see how she feels. She might be like, “Ew, gross,” and it’s possible.
I did read something that Noah said online yesterday in an interview where he was talking about Abbot in Season 2. I don’t know much, but I did hear him say that they’re going to delve deeper into Abbot’s backstory and his relationship with his deceased wife. He still wears his wedding ring. That’s one of the pieces of hidden trauma that I knew about, but we haven’t gone into yet, but I think we might deal with it this season.
So for Season 2, have you received scripts, or is it still a mystery?
It’s still a mystery to me. I’ve received scripts, though. I’m just about now ready to sit down and plunge in. For directing, I’m going to have to catch up.
Thinking about Abbot’s relationship with Dr. Robby, what would you say are the biggest differences between them? And why do they work so well together?
They’re kind of mirror images of each other, but one is night, one is day. (Laughs). I think the writers did a really nice job of the way that they presented the bookends of the roof scenes. Abbot, seemingly coming off of a horrendous night shift, losing this vet who he spent three hours trying to save, I think that affected him and made him question his purpose. And by the end of the shift, he’s up on the roof and the roles are reversed now. Robby has had his worst day, and Abbot is metaphorically talking him off the ledge.
But Abbot’s purpose is crystallized in that moment. He figures out that the reason that he keeps coming back is because they’re the bees that protect the hive. It’s in his DNA โ I think that that line is pure Abbot. It’s the spine of how I shape that character.
I think he is in many ways, at least at the end of Season 1, a kind of a fully formed character, whereas Robby has experienced a type of PTSD that will need attention. Abbot has proven and said that he’s working on himself, and it’ll be nice to find out if Robby will go that path.
Back to the hidden elements of trauma in Abbot’s life. Are there any other details or subtle moments about his personality or his personal life that fans maybe haven’t picked up on? Or do you have a favorite trait of his?
I don’t know about that. There’s so much about just the way he carries himself that’s very much me. I was trying to avoid creating something that was transformative. I wanted him to be as close to me as possible. Sometimes that can be challenging, playing somebody that’s very close to you, somebody that’s like you. So there’s that.
I think it’s amazing that he’s had a rough night, and he’s sitting there in his whatever, I don’t know, house, van, I don’t know, listening to a police scanner, just waiting for an emergency. I think that does say a lot about him. And I do think Season 2 will highlight a little bit more of what he does in his off time, and we will learn maybe why he does stuff like that.
Thinking about Abbot’s life outside of the ER, are there any elements you get to imagine for yourself, or is it purely from the scripts?
No, I think as actors, we often create these little things to give energy or life to a scene. … That’s kind of the training that you get as an actor. So it’s just even the Mohan stuff, whether or not it was explicit, the nuance for me was always this sort of feeling of flutter that he gets with her. Because he does respect her, and she responds.
You’re always trying to build a backstory. And what’s incredible about episodic television is sometimes even the writers create a backstory, and they tell you that, and then you get to, like, Season 3, and it completely changes, and you just have to accept that. That’s how the stuff that I build in thereย โ it’s never right, but you just kind of have it in there to bring nuance to the scene.
You said by the end of Season 1, he’s a fully formed character. Do you feel like you have him down? Do you have his backstory down, or are there new areas you want to mine?
I feel like I have his backstory down to this point. (Laughs.) I do believe that they will throw a monkey wrench into that. I’ve worked on John Wells-produced shows, this is my fifth show with him, and every single one of them, I’ve played pretty complex characters. Like for “Southland,” each season, Sammy Bryant would get to a place where I’m like, “I don’t know if he can recover from that.” And then John will, and his staff of brilliant writers, always come up with a plan that knocks him down another peg. And I’m assuming that Abbot will have a very roller coaster, emotional plight.
Congratulations on your Emmy nomination. How are you feeling going into the award show, and how did you react to the nomination?
I’m feeling great. I’m so … I’m overwhelmed. It means so much to get the support from the people in the business that do this. But more importantly, I think it’s just exciting for the show, being recognized. I’m proud of the show. I think it has something important to say about health care workers, and it is a show that doesn’t cost a lot of money compared to other shows, and it’s shot in L.A. I think it’s great for the business, this show, this model. And I hope that this success, the critical response, leads to more shows like it.
And how I celebrated, (laughs), I was alone in a hotel room in Vancouver, actually. And my wife and I were on the phone, and then I received a lot of phone calls congratulating me. I think I’ve heard from everybody. And I don’t drink anymore, and it’s been a while since I’ve done that, but I actually was like, “What am I going to do?” So I went to Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver, and I played pickleball with complete strangers. So that’s how I celebrated.
Have you thought about what a win would mean to you?
No. (Laughs.) The nomination really is the win. It feels great. And it’s been a grinding career, just grinding it out. So the nomination is great. Whatever happens from there? Thank you. And if not, OK. It’s not going to change anything about how I work, or what this show looks like. We’re gonna attack it from the same point of view.
Is there anything you’d want to say to the Abbot fans out there?
No, just go easy on me out there on the internet. I’m very sensitive.