After almost two years of production, ABC’s high-stakes medical docu-series “NY Med” returns tonight at 10pmET.
TVNewser was at the new season’s preview screening two weeks ago, where doctors, nurses, and patients spoke about their experiences on the show.
“We see this show as far more than entertainment,” EP Terry Wrong told us. “We often have had doctors and nurses come up to us and say they went to medical or nursing school because of our shows.”
One doctor part of the show definitely went to medical school: Dr. Mehmet Oz is in the right place at the right time during tonight’s premiere, when a patient’s condition worsens to the point where Oz doesn’t know whether he’ll live past the next ten minutes.
From life-threatening ER crises to a more lighthearted case involving an older gentleman hell-bent on having sex again, the show offers a little bit of everything.
“There are points where a story gets so hard, that I don’t want to see it, and I don’t think the viewer wants to see it,” Wrong said about deciding what to include in episodes and what to leave on the cutting room floor. “You have to use your own gut check, not just as a producer, but as a human being.”
The show works by not “lecturing audiences about some issue like healthcare,” Wrong says. “Tell them a story with strong doctors, nurses or patients and they will absorb the information as it relates to the characters they become invested in.”