served as an executive producer throughout its six-season run. The series focused on emergency services workers across a single shift in New York. The first season began in 1999. Wells and Bernero co-wrote the pilot episode "Welcome to Camelot". Wells also wrote the first-season episodes "Sunny, Like Sunshine", "This Band of Brothers", "Spring Forward, Fall Back", and the first-season finale "Young Men and Fire". Wells wrote four second-season episodes the premiere entitled "The Lost", "Faith", "Requiem for a Bantamweight", and the finale "...and Zeus Wept". Wells directed the second-season episode "True Love". Wells wrote a further four episodes for the third season in 2001 – "September Tenth", "After Time", "Adam 55-3", and "Two Hundred and Thirty-Three Days". Bernero took over as show runner after the third season and Wells remained attached as an executive producer until Third Watch ended in 2005 but did not write any more episodes. The West Wing Wells took over as show runner of The West Wing in 2003 for the fifth season. He ran the show for three seasons until its conclusion in 2006. Southland During the 2008 to 2009 television season Wells developed Southland for NBC. The series was created by Ann Biderman. It follows detectives and patrol officers in the titular area of Los Angeles. Wells returned as an executive producer for the second season in fall 2009 and co-wrote the season premiere "Phase Three" with Biderman. NBC canceled the series while the second season was in production but the episodes were picked up and aired by TNT. TNT renewed the series for a third season and Wells remained an executive producer and writer. He again co-wrote the season premiere "Let It Snow" with Biderman. He also wrote the teleplay for the season finale "Graduation Day" from a story by his ex-assistant Heather Zuhlke. Animal Kingdom Wells was a producer, writer and director on the TNT crime drama Animal Kingdom from 2016 to 2022. He received a writing credit on five episodes and directed 10 episodes, including the pilot and the series finale. Shameless In 2009, Wells began work on an American adaptation of the British series Shameless. Originally commissioned by HBO, the project moved to competing network Showtime, where it debuted in January 2011. Starring William H. Macy as an alcoholic single father of six children, Shameless was the best performing first-year drama in Showtime's history. Shameless has run for 11 seasons.