Hank Steinberg Inks Broadcast Deal With Fox Entertainment

Veteran TV creator and showrunner Hank Steinberg has entered a broadcast direct deal with Fox Entertainment where he executive produces the upcoming medical drama Doc. Under the pact, Steinberg, creator and executive producer of the hit CBS series Without A Trace, will be developing new, Fox-owned scripted dramas for the network.

Getting a successful fully owned drama series on the air has been a big priority for Fox whose only effort in the space so far has been the short-lived Monarch. (On the comedy side, Fox has fared well with the live-action Animal Control and animated Krapopolis, the latter stemming from a direct deal with Dan Harmon. Next up on the fully owned front is new live-action comedy Going Dutch, which came out of a Fox direct deal with Denis Leary.)

On the Fox Entertainment talent roster, Steinberg joins fellow prolific drama creator Matt Nix whose drama project for the network had been heating up.

Steinberg is coming off a five-year overall deal with Sony Picture TV, which I hear ended in May amid an industry-wide pullout from big, lengthy overall pacts. While at Sony, he created and executive produced legal drama For Life, which ran on ABC for two seasons, and executive produces Doc, a co-production between Sony TV and Fox Entertainment, which is set for a midseason premiere.

“Hank is an invaluable creative partner and collaborator, already delivering the intense new medical procedural Doc to the network,” said Michael Thorn, President of Fox Television Network. “Expanding this relationship builds on Hank’s proven track record for creating undeniable, broad-appeal franchises, and with his incomparable voice, will bring even more incredible, unexpected entertainment to Fox’s audiences worldwide.”

In addition to crime procedural Without A Trace, which aired on CBS for seven seasons, and For Life, Steinberg created and exec produced the post-apocalyptic drama The Last Ship for TNT.

Based on the Italian series Doc – Nelle tue mani, Fox’s medical drama is executive produced by Steinberg, the project’s writer/showrunner Barbie Kligman, and Erwin Stoff. Doc stars Molly Parker as the hard-charging, brilliant Dr. Amy Larsen, Chief of Internal and Family Medicine at Westside Hospital in Minneapolis. After a brain injury erases the last eight years of her life, Amy must navigate an unfamiliar world where she has no recollection of patients she’s treated, colleagues she’s crossed, the soulmate she divorced, the man she now loves and the tragedy that caused her to push everyone away.

“The experience of working on Doc with Michael, Brooke Bowman and the entire Fox team has been one of the most rewarding of my career. Their passion and support from the moment we pitched the show has been unwavering, and Michael’s clarity and vision as the distributor of the content creates such a cohesive dynamic within which to work,” Steinberg said. “I’ve always admired the risk-taking of Fox’s brand within the realm of network programming, and I really look forward to continuing and expanding on our success together.”

Steinberg is repped by WME, 3 Arts and Gendler, Kelly & Cunningham.