Farhad Safinia developed Boss in late 2009 with creative input from Kelsey Grammer and his production company Grammnet Productions.

In November 2010, the script was shopped to various cable networks and, after a heated bidding war, Starz gave it an eight-episode straight-to-series order based solely on the strength of the script, consistent with Starz's model of not ordering pilots.

Gus Van Sant was originally attached to the project as director for the pilot.

Kelsey Grammer was the first actor cast, followed by Connie Nielsen as his wife Meredith, then Jeff Hephner as Ben Zajac, with Hannah Ware and Kathleen Robertson being the last main cast members to join.

The series was filmed on location in Chicago, Illinois, with production running from April 27, 2011, to July 27, 2011.

Starz moved the season two premiere from an originally planned October 21, 2012 date up to August 17, 2012, to avoid competing with the fall TV launch and to capture a gap between summer cable finales and the new season.

After the show's ratings fell sharply—from about 659,000 viewers at the season one premiere to just 268,000 for the third episode—low ratings were cited as the main reason for its cancellation on November 20, 2012.

Kelsey Grammer won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama for his role, though the series itself lost Best Drama Series to Homeland at the 69th Golden Globe Awards.

After the show's cancellation, a film was discussed to wrap up the storylines, but those plans were dropped after series creator Farhad Safinia declined to move forward with the project.