Another medical show will be joining Doc on Fox for the 2025-2026 season. Specifically, it will be part of the lineup in the midseason.
Best Medicine is based on the global hit Doc Martin. Josh Charles is set to star as the lead doctor, and the cast also includes Abigail Spencer and Josh Segarra. On Thursday, September 4, the network announced the recurring cast. Unlike Doc, a one-hour drama — and Fox’s previous medical hit The Resident — this is a one-hour comedy.
“Comedy isn’t one genre for us. We don’t just look at it as like half-hour live-action comedy,” Michael Thorn, President, FOX Television Network, FOX Entertainment, said to reporters on Sunday, May 11. “We look at it as animation, of course comedy, but we look at it like with a one-hour comedy like Best Medicine. Even our game shows like The 1% Club, we look at as a comedy first and a game show second. And so this just felt like it was kind of a perfect opportunity for us to expand the way that we talk to our audience through comedy.”
Read on for everything we know about this new series, from the cast to a premiere date and more.
When will Best Medicine premiere?
An exact premiere date has yet to be announced, but it will be part of the midseason lineup of Fox’s 2025-2026 season.
Fox
Who stars in Best Medicine?
Josh Charles plays the leading role, Dr. Martin Best. Abigail Spencer will play Louisa Glasson, a warm, charming local school teacher who immediately gets off on the wrong foot with Martin Best, yet she’s intrigued by him.
In a series regular role, Segarra will play Sheriff Mark Mylow, a charming lawman who knows every inch of his town. Still healing from a recent breakup with Louisa, he’s eager to get to know the new doctor, forming a bit of a love triangle as sparks begin to fly between Best and his former flame.
Cree plays Elaine Denton, who has big dreams and plans to get out of the town ASAP. She’s charming but inept at her job and too focused on becoming a YouTube star. She also has no idea why Martin is always upset with her.
Annie Potts has also joined as a series regular. She’ll play Best’s Aunt Joan, who is a strong, sturdy, lobster woman who still goes out every day on her boat, and no one better tell her to stop if they know what’s good for them. She’s salt of the earth and underneath her stern demeanor she has a heart as big as the sea. She loves her small Maine town and her cranky nephew. She’s loyal but stubborn, the kind of woman you want to be around and not disappoint. But even Joan will have a few secrets — including why she ended up losing touch with Martin so many years before.
And joining them in recurring roles are Didi Conn as councilwoman Geneva Potter, Clea Lewis as pharmacist Sally Mylow, Stephen Spinella and Jason Veasey as the happily married proprietors of The Salty Breeze, Greg Garrison and George Brady, Cindy De La Cruz as the schoolteacher Jeannie, John DiMaggio as the handyman Burt Large, Carter Shimp as Burt’s son Al Large, and the canine cast member Wattson as Copernicus.
The series comes from executive producers Ben Silverman, Howard T. Owens, Rodney Ferrell, Liz Tuccillo, Mark Crowdy, and Philippa Braithwaite. Crowdy and Braithwaite worked on Doc Martin, which ran 10 seasons and one TV movie. It premiered in 2004, and the final episode aired in 2022.
What is Best Medicine about?
The new series is based on the critically acclaimed and beloved global hit Doc Martin. Best Medicine follows Martin Best, a brilliant surgeon who abruptly leaves his illustrious career in Boston to become the general practitioner in a quaint East Coast fishing village where he spent summers as a child. Unfortunately, Martin’s blunt and borderline rude bedside manner rubs the quirky, needy locals the wrong way, and he quickly alienates the town, even though he’s all they’ve got. Although Martin can expertly address any medical ailment or mystery in this idiosyncratic town, he’s really just desperate to be left the hell alone. Instead, he keeps getting dragged right smack into the middle of their personal chaos, feuds and fantasies. What the locals don’t know is that Martin’s terse demeanor masks a debilitating new phobia and deep-seated psychological issues that prevent him from experiencing true intimacy with anyone. But tenacity is the creed of everyone in their small village, and the people who live there may be exactly what the doctor ordered.
“The story of Doc Martin has resonated worldwide with its humanity, originality, and humor, and with Best Medicine coming to Fox, that eccentricity gets a small-town America spin, complete with idyllic charm and absurdity,” said Michael Thorn, president of Fox Television Network, in a statement. “Liz, Mark, Philippa, Ben, and Rodney have done a terrific job adapting this signature character for the Fox audience, especially in casting the terrifically talented Josh Charles as our lead.”
Propagate Content’s Ben Silverman added, “The entire Propagate team is thrilled to be working with Fox Entertainment on this extraordinary adaptation by Liz Tuccillo of the global hit Doc Martin. Josh Charles is the perfect lead for this brilliantly character-driven comedic procedural. Best Medicine is a world we’ll all want to be part of.”
Thorn expanded on what to expect from the show to reporters on Sunday, May 11. “We love this story for its humor, charm, optimism, and edge, not to mention its standing as a proven 10 season global hit out of the UK. It’s been almost a decade since we’ve had a one hour comedy on Fox. So introducing this signature Fox character and his story is the perfect fit for us. There really is nothing like best medicine on broadcast TV today,” he said.
He added, “A couple things we love about the original format that Liz Tuccillo, who’s adapting the American version, just captured so well is the original has this old, funny, surprising, flawed, no filter character who happens to be a brilliant doctor. And that kind of messy characters work so well for our audience on our air. And we think Liz did a great job capturing it and how lucky are we’d have Josh Charles to embody the American version. And then the other thing about the original that we love, it’s really this kind of wonderful, quirky ensemble of supporting characters. There’s a great romance, it’s an aspirational small town setting, and it just feels like all of those qualities put to the typewriter of Liz just really works so well for us.”
Is there a Best Medicine trailer?
Not yet.
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