New Amsterdam‘s newest surgeon will definitely be scrubbing back in for the fifth and final season: The NBC medical drama has promoted Sandra Mae Frank, who plays Dr. Elizabeth Wilder, to series regular for the show’s swan song, TVLine has learned exclusively.
Frank joined the ensemble in the Season 4 premiere as a deaf surgeon whom Max was initially interviewing to fill Helen’s position before offering her his job as the hospital’s medical director. She declined the gig, but eventually joined the staff as Chief of Oncology. Thus far, Frank has appeared in 12 episodes this season and earned a TVLine Performer of the Week Honorable Mention for Episode 13 (“Family”), which explored the relationship between Dr. Wilder and her brother.
New Amsterdam‘s Season 4 finale airs tonight (NBC, 10/9c) and features a weather crisis as a hurricane approaches New York ahead of Max and Helen’s wedding.
“Obviously, no one was planning for this hurricane to hit. It was coming for the Carolinas and then changes directions pretty abruptly,” executive producer David Schulner tells TVLine. “So that’s really where everyone finds themselves, having to worry about something that, literally and figuratively, was not on their radar hours before.”
Meanwhile, Helen is on a plane traveling from London to New York for the wedding during most of the episode. “Because Helen is mid-Atlantic when the hurricane changes directions, there is some jeopardy in the air as well,” Schulner warns. (Get more finale scoop here.)
New Amsterdam fans, are you excited to see more of Dr. Wilder next season? Hit the comments!
