Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Burn Notice creator, executive producer and showrunner Matt Nix has signed a new two-year high-seven-figure overall deal with Fox TV Studios, the company behind the hit USA Network series. The pact, which has an option for a third year, will cover Nix’s services as showrunner of the upcoming fifth and sixth seasons of Burn Notice, which was given a two-season pickup last April. Additionally, Nix is expected to develop new projects for FtvS. He proved he can juggle running two series at the same time last year when his cop dramedy The Good Guys was picked up to series at Fox, first for the summer and then also for the fall. Over the course of the year, Nix oversaw 20 episodes of The Good Guys and 18 episodes of Burn Notice‘s fourth season. Additionally, he jumped in to write and executive produce the Burn Notice USA movie prequel, Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe, which was announced in the idea stage at last year’s Comic-Con in July. Nix quickly wrote the script while working on his two series, and in November, the movie was greenlighted with Burn Notice star Jeffrey Donovan directing. The Bruce Campbell-starring Sam Axe, which premiered last night on USA, comes out on DVD July 26. The fifth season of Burn Notice premieres June 23.

In addition to being a hit on USA, Burn Notice has also been a strong performer for the studio in domestic syndication as well as internationally. The series nabbed the largest cable-to-cable off-network sale ever with a deal to run on USA and MyNetwork. It launches in broadcast syndication this fall. Because of the lucrative off-network sales for the show, with his back-end included, Nix’s deal is said to be rivaling that of top basic cable showrunner Matt Weiner of AMC’s Mad Men. For Nix, repped by WME, manager Mikkel Bondesen and attorney David Colden, this marks the second consecutive overall deal at FtvS.

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