TV Shows Like ER
If you like ER, here are 10 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
NBC · Drama · ER is ended
ER ran for fifteen seasons on NBC and set a standard for medical drama that most shows since have measured themselves against. What made it work was not just the medicine, though the procedural detail was impressive for its time. It was the accumulation of pressure: shifts that never let up, cases that arrived faster than they could be resolved, and staff members who were fraying at the edges even as they kept people alive. Chicago's Cook County General felt genuinely overburdened, and that texture gave the show weight that slicker hospital dramas rarely matched.
The best shows like ER
1. Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy shares ER's core interest in the personal and professional lives of hospital staff, with a large rotating ensemble, ongoing workplace relationships, and cases that carry genuine stakes. It leans more into romance and long-form emotional arcs than ER did, but the surgical drama and the sense of a hospital as a world unto itself will feel immediately recognizable. If you liked watching ER characters define themselves through crisis after crisis, Grey's gives you that on an even grander scale.
Stream on Netflix, Hulu, fuboTV, YouTube TV
Likely Renewed72%
2. Private Practice
Private Practice is a spinoff of Grey's Anatomy that trades the hospital ward for a private wellness practice in Santa Monica, so the setting is warmer and the pace is a little different from ER's relentless emergency room. But the show keeps the same focus on doctors whose professional decisions and personal lives are constantly tangled together. Fans of ER who appreciated its character-driven drama alongside the medicine will find a lot to enjoy here.
Stream on Hulu
Ended0%
3. Chicago Fire
Chicago Fire moves the action from the ER to Firehouse 51, but the DNA is recognizable: an ensemble of first responders in a high-stakes job, set in the same city ER called home. The show takes the paramedic side of emergency response seriously, so there is a genuine through-line to the medical urgency ER fans are used to. It trades detailed procedural medicine for action and firehouse camaraderie, but the emotional stakes and Chicago atmosphere make it a natural fit.
Stream on fuboTV, Peacock Premium, YouTube TV, NBC
Renewed100%
4. Chicago Med
Chicago Med is probably the closest match on this list to what ER was doing, putting a large ensemble cast into a Chicago emergency department and tracking both the daily chaos of the cases and the personal lives of the staff. The show is part of a broader interconnected franchise, but it stands on its own as a medical drama with real investment in the pressures of emergency medicine. If you miss the specific rhythm of ER, with the city, the ER setting, and the overburdened staff, this is the most direct path to something similar.
Stream on fuboTV, Peacock Premium, Philo, YouTube TV
Renewed100%
5. The Pitt
The Pitt follows the staff of an underfunded Pittsburgh emergency department and uses a real-time structure that puts you inside a single shift, which creates a sustained tension that recalls ER at its most focused. The overcrowded, under-resourced setting is very much in the spirit of Cook County General, and the show treats the emergency medicine seriously rather than using it as backdrop. For ER fans who responded most to the pressure-cooker atmosphere of those early seasons, this is worth seeking out.
Stream on HBO Max Amazon Channel, YouTube TV, HBO Max
Renewed100%
More on shows like ER
Fans of ER tend to want specific things when they look for something new. They want medicine that feels urgent rather than decorative. They want a large ensemble cast where relationships shift over time, where someone you trust can burn out or make a catastrophic mistake. They generally want a setting that has its own personality, whether that's a city, a building, or a particular institution. And they want the show to take the emotional cost of the work seriously, not just the drama of saving lives but the wear of doing it day after day.
The recommendations here cover that range pretty well. Grey's Anatomy and its spinoff Private Practice carry the torch most directly, trading ER's gritty Chicago setting for Seattle and Los Angeles respectively but keeping the ensemble soap mechanics and hospital politics intact. Chicago Med is the most direct descendant in terms of setting and tone, putting an emergency department back in Chicago with a similar commitment to case-driven drama. Chicago Fire is a step sideways, moving from the hospital to the firehouse, but it shares the same city and the same interest in first responders under pressure. The Pitt is the newest entry on this list, and its real-time structure gives it an intensity that recalls what ER did best in its early seasons.
None of these shows are exact copies, and they shouldn't be. Grey's Anatomy leans harder into romance and long-running personal melodrama than ER typically did. Chicago Fire is more action-forward and less medically detailed. But each one has enough of ER's DNA that fans of the original will find something familiar to hold onto, and most of them have run long enough to offer serious depth if you get hooked.
More shows like ER
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like ER?
- Grey's Anatomy is the most popular show similar to ER in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like ER still on the air?
- Of the 10 shows similar to ER listed here, 3 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like ER?
- The recommendations come from TMDB's similar-titles data, and each is shown with its current AI renewal verdict so you know which are still going.