Yahoo Finance David Shore Inks Big New 4-Year Overall Deal With Sony Pictures Television
EXCLUSIVE: The Good Doctor creator David Shore has re-upped his overall deal with Sony Pictures Television, extending his long-running relationship with the studio behind the hit ABC medical drama, which was just renewed for a fifth season.
Under the rich new four-year pact, believed to be in the eight-figure range, Shore will continue to executive produce and run The Good Doctor, as well as develop projects for the studio under his Shore Z Production banner.
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With the new deal, Shore and Sony TV’s partnership will cross over the decade mark next year, one of the longest current showrunner tenures at Sony — and any TV studio. Other creative talent who have been at Sony TV for a long time include fellow showrunners Vince Gilligan, Shawn Ryan, Josh Berman and Robia Rashid as well as producers Doug Robinson, Neil H. Moritz and Seth Gordon.
Four seasons in, The Good Doctor ranks as the #1 program in the Monday 10 pm hour this season in total viewers (7.0 million) and as the #1 entertainment series among Adults 18-49 (1.1 rating/7 share, most current). It has been among Sony TV’s most commercially successful and globally popular scripted series over the past couple of decades.
For Shore, The Good Doctor followed another massive medical drama hit, House, which he also created, executive produced and ran. The Universal TV-produced series aired for eight seasons on Fox. Shortly after House ended its run in 2012 with a series finale written and directed by Shore, he moved to Sony TV, signing the first of a string of overall deals there.
He moved to Sony with the goal of building up his banner Shore Z Prods. into a full-fledged production company with the help of a development executive. He hired Erin Gunn, who has been Head of Development and Production at Shore Z Productions ever since, working side by side with Shore. The company is developing a wide range of projects in various genres including legal drama Liability, in development at ABC, which Shore Z is producing with The Good Doctor star Freddie Highmore and his Alfresco Pictures, as well as Tegan Shohet, who is writing and producing.
“David’s brilliant work has resonated with audiences around the world. We’re so fortunate to have him as a longstanding member of the Sony family,” said Jeff Frost, President of Sony Pictures Television. “We’re very much looking forward to the next season of The Good Doctor and to collaborating with David and Erin on alluring, quality television for many more years to come.”
A former practicing attorney and partner at a boutique law firm in Toronto, Shore originally planned to pursue a career as a comedy writer but his legal background helped him break into the drama field with an L.A. Law spec script, which landed him his first writing job on Paul Haggis’ Due South. In 1996, David E. Kelley picked Shore as one of the three original writers on The Practice. After stints on several drama series, including Law & Order and Family Law, Shore wrote the pilot script for House in only his second stab at development.
“We share a tremendous relationship with everyone at Sony TV and look forward to at least four more years together,” said Shore. “You couldn’t ask for a more supportive and collaborative executive team than Tony Vinciquerra, Jeff Frost and Jason Clodfelter. Erin and I appreciate them and everyone at the studio for making Sony a great long-term home for us.”
Shore is repped by ICM Partners, manager Larry Shuman and attorney Bill Sobel.
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