'The Resident' Season 4 Tackles COVID-19 In Devastating Ways

Hospital drama, The Resident, is back for Season 4 tonight. Just like Grey's Anatomy, The Resident has weaved the pandemic into its storyline, which is making viewers curious about when the season was filmed IRL. 

Since production was largely either slowed or shut down completely (across the board) earlier in 2020, most TV shows had to recalibrate their timing, and some even had to rewrite their scripts to either incorporate COVID-19 or deal with scheduling conflicts.

We already knew back in July that The Resident Season 4 would tackle the pandemic's impact on the healthcare industry and essential workers. “Our premiere deals with the early days of the outbreak, focusing on the effect on our hero doctors and nurses as they risk their lives daily. Long-term, sadly, the after-effects of COVID-19 will go on, even after we have a vaccine, and we’ll be there to show that, as well," the show's co-creator Amy Holden Jones told Us Weekly.

It was also reported that there were delays in production.

The Resident likely began filming Season 4 sometime during or shortly after June 2020, although it does seem like the show is still currently filming the season. AuditionsFree posted a casting call for this season on December 6, 2020, asking for "area locals [in Atlanta, Georgia] to fill various paid, non-speaking roles in upcoming episodes of The Resident." Executive producer Andrew Chapman stated that they started "figuring out" the season in June, though it's unclear if that's when they started filming it.

"When we first started figuring out this season, we were in the middle of the pandemic. It was June of 2020. We had long conversations, like, how are we going to tell a story about the most important medical event of the last 100 years?" Andrew told Entertainment Weekly. 

He also shared that it was hard to film, thanks to pandemic limitations. "Shooting in the time of COVID is hard. Our cast and crew can't spend hours together like before, practicing or shooting intimate scenes anymore," he said. It sounds like the crew took extra safety precautions, though.

Indeed, in the casting call, it specifically states that people interested in being cast in the roles(s) need to take a COVID test December 14, 2020, and be able to start working December 16. It's unknown if the roles The Resident was hoping to fill were for earlier or later episodes, although this is something we'll be able to learn at some point. The description reads: "Delivery Driver: Male who portrays any ethnicity and is comfortable driving a vehicle or van in the shot. Height 5’11” or taller."

Fans of The Resident likely don't have to worry about the show ending any time soon (although you never know these days). Andrew told EW, "No, we don't want this to be our final season. We have not been officially renewed by Fox, nor have we even aired yet. We have lots more stories to tell, we have more to say about health care, and more to say about our characters and where they are going. We've already started thinking about where to take these characters in Season 5."

Watch The Resident every Tuesday on FOX at 8 p.m. EST.