Rob Lowe to Join 'Code Black' as a Series Regular in Season 2 - Get the Details on His 'Aggressive' Character!

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Rob Lowe is scrubbing in to the second season of Code Black!

ET has learned that the 52-year-old actor is joining the CBS medical drama as a series regular playing Col. Ethan Willis, a doctor in the U.S. military’s prestigious Combat Casualty Care research program.

Lowe, who most recently starred in the short-lived Fox comedy, The Grinder, will make his Code Black debut in the series' season two premiere later this fall.


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Lowe's character, who has been pulled out of a combat hospital in Afghanistan and embedded at Angels Memorial to teach combat medicine, is described to have an "aggressive and rule-breaking" medical style.

Naturally, Ethan and Dr. Leanne Rorish (Marcia Gay Harden) will get along famously in the operating room, but the other doctors may not be as pleased about this newcomer in their hospital halls.

This news comes as quite a surprise given that Lowe was considered to be one of the frontrunners to join Kelly Ripa as her permanent co-host on Live!. Just last month, a source told ET that ABC had been talking to Lowe's reps again, having chatted with the actor about the highly coveted gig back in 2012, when ABC was looking for Regis Philbin's replacement. Lowe had impressed viewers at the time when he guest-hosted for two days. But the job, of course, ended up going to Michael Strahan.

Code Black's second season premieres Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.