“The Pitt” star Noah Wyle is speaking out about edits made to an episode of the hit HBO medical drama featuring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Wyle, 54, told Variety in an interview published Thursday that he was initially “concerned” after HBO provided notes on the episode asking it to be more “balanced.”The show, which follows the day-to-day lives of health care workers at a Pittsburgh emergency room, includes an episode this season in which ICE agents arrive at the hospital with a detained individual. In the March 19 episode, the arrival of ICE agents becomes unsettling for patients and staff, and later leads to the arrest of a nurse.Wyle, who has won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his performance as Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch on the series, told Variety he at first felt uneasy about HBO’s notes on the episode.“The negotiation was being driven by political reasons, creative reasons, fear, uncertainty — all sorts of legitimate reasons,” Wyle, who is also an executive producer on the show, said. “I’ll be honest and say that I was concerned about the edits we were making initially.”The March 19 episode of “The Pitt,” titled “5:00 p.m.,” featured ICE agents bringing a detained patient into the Pittsburgh emergency room.Warrick Page / MAXExecutive producer John Wells addressed the changes during a February appearance on “The Town” podcast, saying discussions with HBO focused on ensuring the episode was “balanced.” Wells said including the ICE storyline was reasonable because it reflects an issue that emergency rooms regularly face.“It’s a real issue in emergency rooms,” Wells said.The March 19 episode of “The Pitt,” titled “5:00 p.m.,” featured ICE agents bringing a detained patient into the Pittsburgh emergency room.Warrick Page / MAX“The Pitt” has not shied away from contemporary sociopolitical issues since its January 2025 debut, with its first season having several of its episodes center around a mass shooting. But with the ICE storyline, Wells said they decided to seek notes from the network before proceeding with the episodes. Season two dropped amid an acquisition battle for HBO’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. In February, WBD signed an agreement to be acquired by Paramount Skydance in a takeover bid that’s more than $110 billion. Paramount Skydance is led by David Ellison, the son of Silicon Valley billionaire Larry Ellison, a close ally of President Donald Trump. The younger Ellison’s Skydance Media acquired Paramount Global last year in an $8 billion deal. Ellison, 43, pursued the WBD assets even after the company signed a $72 billion deal with Netflix.“When we first pitched it, I thought, ‘Uh oh,’ you know,” Wells told the Daily Beast in February about the ICE episode. “I can say that all of us are approaching what’s going on in this country right now with a certain trepidation, and also awareness that there are some possible risks to telling certain kinds of stories.”HBO had just one note, Wells said. “And their response was, ‘Good story. Just make sure it’s balanced, and we’re not just treating the situation as if it doesn’t have other points of view.’”Other cast members have also weighed in on why they think the political storylines resonate.When asked about the ICE episode specifically, Isa Briones, who plays doctor-in-training Trinity Santos on the series, described it as “very heavy.”“Our show, what makes it so great I think, is we are showing the world as it is,” Briones told Deadline on the red carpet at the Actors’ Awards in March. “And we’re not even necessarily commenting on it at times. It’s just like, ‘here it is, tell me what you think.’”After seeing the final cut of the ICE episode, Wyle told Variety his concerns largely eased. He described the finished episode as “showing the bear” rather than “poking the bear.” The episode was filmed in December, before the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents during Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. Wyle suggested that by the time the episode aired, ICE was already well known by viewers.“The context is already imprinted in American minds,” Wyle said.“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,” he said. “It’s healthier for the storyline in the long run.”HBO did not immediately respond to an Jattvibe News request for comment.