Einstein

The series is based on a 2015 television film of the same name that aired on Sat.1 emotions and Sat.1 in March 2015; just one day after its German free-TV premiere, Sat.1 announced the film would be continued as a full series due to strong ratings and audience response.

The first six episodes were shot in Bochum between April 7 and June 8, 2015, with production later extended by four more episodes to bring season one to ten episodes, filmed in spring 2016.

For the second season, director Thomas Jahn was replaced by a new trio of directors—Dominic Müller, Felix Stienz and Oliver Dommenget—while writers Martin Ritzenhoff and Matthias Dinter and producers Michael Souvignier and Dominik Frankowski continued their roles.

The series' broadcast was delayed multiple times: originally planned for autumn 2016, it was pushed back to spring 2017 for its actual Sat.1 premiere.

The show's highest overall audience rating (2.56 million viewers, 7.7% share) came with the premiere episode 'Ballistik' on January 10, 2017, while its lowest ratings (1.42 million viewers) were recorded twice on March 6, 2018 for the episodes 'Anaphylaxie' and 'Kompression'.

Einstein received two Jupiter Award nominations for Best National TV Series, in 2018 and 2019.

Distributed internationally by Red Arrow Studios International, the series was sold to over 100 territories and became particularly popular in Spain and Portugal.

Several international adaptations followed the original, including versions in the Czech Republic (2021, starring Vojtěch Kotek) and Slovakia (2023, starring Juraj Loj), plus multiple attempted U.S. adaptations for NBC and CBS before a CBS pilot was finally ordered in 2024 with Matthew Gray Gubler and later Tony Shalhoub joining the cast.