Noah Wyle Named PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive for 2026
Noah Wyle has been named PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive for 2026, PEOPLE announced on Tuesday morning, with the 55-year-old star of The Pitt and ER saying he first thought the honour sounded like a prank.
The reveal
Amy Poehler revealed Wyle's cover on her podcast, Good Hang with Amy Poehler, shortly before Wyle joined her in the studio, PEOPLE reported. Poehler, a devoted ER fan, once said: “You go for Clooney, you stay for Noah Wyle.” Page Six reported Wyle posed in an all-denim ensemble for the cover shoot.
“I thought that sounded like a prank — just not in a million years did I think that this would be an honor bestowed on me,” Wyle told PEOPLE. He succeeds Jonathan Bailey, who held the title in 2025.
Why his wife Sara said yes
Wyle needed some convincing before he accepted, PEOPLE reported — and his wife, Sara, was the reason he did. “She's the reason I accepted because she was very pleased that this reflects well on her taste,” he said. “She thinks I'm a good guy and that the kind of person that I am and the kind of father I am, the kind of husband I am is worth promoting. I thought, ‘Okay, if you say so.’”
Wyle and Sara met in 2010 and married in June 2014, PEOPLE reported. They share a daughter, Frances, now 11, and Wyle also has a son, Owen, and a daughter, Auden, from his first marriage. His children, he said, were already preparing to tease him about the title for years to come.
There was one ER colleague whose reaction Wyle was especially curious about. George Clooney, his former ER co-star, has won the Sexiest Man Alive title twice. “I think he'll be amused and feel, hopefully, like a proud papa, that I've come of gray-haired age,” Wyle told PEOPLE.
Two doctors, three decades apart
Wyle first became a household name as Dr John Carter on ER, a role he began in 1994, PEOPLE reported. More than thirty years later, he leads the HBO Max medical drama The Pitt as Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, a role PEOPLE said had earned him two consecutive Best Actor Emmys. The show returns for its third season in January, according to PEOPLE.
In the 1990s, Wyle and his ER co-stars appeared on a PEOPLE cover devoted to the show's leading men. Wyle also told the magazine his perfect date night involves eating, and that he has become the household's dishwashing enthusiast, Page Six reported.
Sources: PEOPLE, 27 October 2026; Page Six, 27 October 2026.