The pilot was originally developed and announced in early 2011 for CBS, with filming beginning in March 2011 in New York City, but it was ultimately picked up to series by CBS's sister network, The CW, on May 13, 2011.

Because the show ended up at The CW instead of CBS, ABC Studios dropped out of co-producing it, citing that it could not produce a series within The CW's economics, and Warner Bros. Television stepped in as co-producer instead.

Sarah Michelle Gellar was the first actor cast and also served as executive producer; the series marked her return to television eight years after Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended.

Gellar joked that she was essentially playing five characters: Bridget and Siobhan in the present, both women in flashbacks, and 'Shivette' — the persona of Bridget impersonating Siobhan, which was literally labeled on her chair on set.

Kristoffer Polaha, who played Henry Butler, was the last of the main actors to be cast, joining in March 2011, while Zoey Deutch was announced as a recast for the role of Juliet on July 26, 2011.

The pilot used the 1960 Patsy Cline song 'I Fall to Pieces' and a Pacifika cover of '25 or 6 to 4' to emphasize the show's neo-noir tone, and Lana Del Rey's 'Video Games' received one of its first prime-time placements during a pivotal scene on September 28, 2011.

The main title theme was composed by Gabriel Mann, who also scored the pilot and the first four episodes, after which Mark Snow took over scoring duties for the rest of the series.

Despite mixed critical reviews (a 59/100 on Metacritic), Ringer received sixteen award nominations, more than quadruple any other freshman CW show that season, and became the third-highest-selling CW show on iTunes.

In January 2023, Gellar revealed the show ended in part because she discovered she was pregnant with her second child and felt she could not commit to another season, believing The CW would have renewed it otherwise.

After cancellation, the license for a remake was acquired by Lithuanian television, which produced a second season of the story under the title Tobula Kopija.