Noah Wyle has opened up about the brutal career rollercoaster that led him to a starring role in The Pitt, more than 15 years after his first major series, ER, came to an end.
Wyle, 54, has once again become one of the most talked-about TV stars in recent years, thanks to the phenomenal success of the hit medical drama.
But while his ER co-star and close friend, George Clooney, went on to achieve Hollywood success after he left the series in 1999, Wyle faced severe financial difficulties.
Wyle, who lives on a sprawling ranch in Santa Ynez, California, opened up about his struggles in an interview with the New York Times.
While the TV star had appeared in several projects in the wake of ER, nothing he did seemed to mirror the success of that first major hit. He soon found that interest in his career began to wane.
George Clooney as Doctor Doug Ross and Noah Wyle as Doctor John Carter in ER. Picture: Sven Arnstein/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
The Golden Globe nominee told the NY Times that things became so “bleak”, he considered selling his baseball card collection to raise some extra cash.
Wyle also broached the idea of selling his longtime home.
According to Realtor, the property was put on the market for just under $US6.5 million ($A9.7 million) in March 2020, however, the listing was withdrawn in June of that same year.
It’s unclear whether the actor made the decision to list the home as a result of the money struggles he was facing around that same time.
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Noah Wyle has opened up about the brutal career battle that led him to a starring role in The Pitt. Picture: Foxtel/HBO
Wyle had purchased the property during his final years filming ER, explaining to Cowboys & Indians magazine in 2019 that he wanted his children to have a more rural upbringing, without being too far from Los Angeles.
“I needed to be geographically close to Los Angeles just for practical purposes, but I didn’t want to raise my kids in Los Angeles,” he explained.
“I was raised in Los Angeles. I’m an Angeleno, and I just wanted something a little bit more rural and smaller and slower than city life for my kids.
“Two hours was about as far as I could drive after work on a Friday night when I was doing ER and not fall asleep at the wheel.”
The father-of-three noted that the family had embraced an abundance of wildlife on the ranch, including adding multiple animals to their broods, from pigs and chickens to horses, dogs, and cats.
Before moving out to the ranch, Wyle and his family had been living in a property in Los Feliz, which he offloaded in 2004, having listed the property for $US3.8 million ($A5.6 million).
Property records show that the actor listed his sprawling Santa Ynez, California, ranch for sale in 2020. Picture: Google Maps
Speaking to the NY Times, Wyle did not specify when his financial struggles became so serious, but he credits the Covid-19 pandemic with helping him to find new purpose in his life, in part because, instead of being unable to find work that really mattered, he was forced to stop working altogether.
While this may not have helped his finances, it did prompt a resurgence in his popularity — as medical professionals began turning to Wyle and his ER co-stars for a kind of comfort.
Just as the most severe impacts from the pandemic were beginning to abate, Hollywood was rocked by another major upset in the form of the writers’ and actors’ strikes, which effectively shut down the industry for several months.
Despite feeling “profoundly depressed” at the time, Wyle told the NY Times this period gave him a renewed sense of purpose, giving him a reason to get out of the house and take part in something important.
Through it all, the actor said he wished for just one thing: “Please put me in the company of first-class artists with good hearts and good minds doing meaningful work.”
Wyle, 54, admitted that after the success of ER he faced some tough financial hardships.
As it turns out, that wish would be fulfilled with The Pitt, which Wyle began working on in 2021, alongside writer and producer R. Scott Gemmill, and showrunner John Wells, both of whom he had collaborated with on ER.
The concept for the series began as a sequel to ER, which would follow Wyle’s character, John Carter, through the Covid-19 pandemic — although that idea was later cast aside in favour of a show focusing on a new lead doctor, Dr. Robby, who works at a fictional Pittsburgh hospital.
Wyle admits that they premiered the show with no real idea of how it would perform — only to discover that lightning really can strike twice, with droves of viewers flocking to binge the entire first series, which documents a single day in the emergency room, hour-by-hour.
The series was renewed for a second season before the first instalment of episodes had finished airing.
The Pitt pulled off a trio of major wins at the 2025 Emmy Awards, taking home Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, which was won by Wyle, and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for his co-star, Katherine LaNasa.
Speaking to Variety at the premiere of the second season of The Pitt, Wyle admitted he was stunned by the response to the show, telling the outlet on the red carpet: “I didn’t think lighting would strike twice like this in my life, 30 years apart … it’s the greatest gift.”
When asked if he had a message for his younger self, he was quick to share: “Don’t worry so much, it’s gonna work out okay. Don’t sell your baseball collection.”
Parts of this story first appeared in Realtor and was republished with permission.
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