The Grinder: Greg Malins departs as showrunner

The Grinder has lost its minder.

Greg Malins is exiting his post as showrunner of the new Fox comedy starring Rob Lowe and Fred Savage, the network confirmed on Monday. (The Hollywood Reporter first reported the news.) A new showrunner is expected to be named shortly for the series that centers on an actor who is known for playing a lawyer on a hit show (Lowe), only to return home to Idaho to join legal forces in real life with his brother (Savage).

Sources close to the show cite “creative differences” as the reason for the split. The Grinder has a lot of different producers at the top, with Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel (Allen Gregory, The D Train) as its creators, New Girl‘s Jake Kasdan (who directed the pilot) and Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) as fellow executive producers, and Lowe also serving as an EP.

Malins, whose producing credits include Friends, Will & Grace, and How I Met Your Mother, joined the series after the pilot was filmed. He has an overall production deal with 20th Century Fox Television, which produces The Grinder.

Change has been the name of the game for new shows this fall, as a pair of ABC shows, The Catch and Blood & Oil, as well as NBC’s Chicago Med have parted ways with their original showrunner.

The Grinder‘s series premiere airs Sept. 29.

•Married star Nat Faxon to guest on Rob Lowe’s comedy The Grinder

•Emmanuelle Chriqui to guest-star on Rob Lowe’s new comedy The Grinder