House M.D. premiered in 2004.
The first episode aired on Fox on November 16, 2004. It introduced Gregory House, a brilliant but abrasive diagnostician, and established the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital as the main setting. The pilot also introduced House’s original diagnostic team and his contentious relationship with hospital administrator Lisa Cuddy.
The series arrived during a period when medical dramas were already popular, but its emphasis on rare cases, differential diagnosis, and a deliberately difficult central character gave it a distinctive identity. Its creator, David Shore, combined hospital storytelling with influences from Sherlock Holmes mysteries.
The premiere year is sometimes confused with the year the show ended, 2012, or with the year of the series finale. House M.D. ran for eight seasons, beginning in 2004 and concluding in 2012. The title is often written as House or House, M.D., depending on the source.