Private Practice is a spin-off of the popular television show, Grey's Anatomy. Created by Shonda Rhimes, the series chronicles the life of Dr. Addison Montgomery as she leaves Seattle Grace Hospital for Los Angeles in order to join a private practice. Rhimes also serves as executive producer alongside Betsy Beers, Mark Gordon, Mark Tinker and Marti Noxon; the latter serving as showrunner in lieu of Rhimes' duties on Grey's Anatomy. The backdoor pilot which aired on May 3, 2007 was directed by Michael Grossman. Produced by ABC Studios, The Mark Gordon Company and Shondaland Productions, the series was officially greenlit and given a thirteen-episode order on May 11, 2007. It aired on Wednesday nights on 9:00PM Eastern/8:00PM Central. It is currently on hiatus due to the Writers Guild of America strike. The show premiered on September 26 2007 on ABC, following Dancing with the Stars whilst leading out Dirty Sexy Money.
Private Practice was shown in encores on Thursday nights at 10:00PM Eastern/9:00PM Central following Grey's Anatomy due to the hiatus/cancellation of Big Shots.
The series airs at 8 pm EST/PST on CTV in Canada, on TV4 in Sweden, and is to air on Channel Seven in Australia and NTV7 in Malaysia, TF1 in France, Antena 3 in Spain, FOX Life in Portugal, and UK on Living/Channel Five respectively.
The series will be shown soon on Star World in Asia on Mtv3 in Finland, ORF 1 in Austria, Studio 23 in Philippines and Pro7 in Germany.
On February 11, 2008, ABC picked up Private Practice for the 2008-09 television season.
The role of Naomi Bennett was played by Merrin Dungey in the pilot episode's "Grey's Anatomy" (2005) {The Other Side of This Life: Part 1 (#3.22)} and "Grey's Anatomy" (2005) {The Other Side of This Life: Part 2 (#3.23)}.
