After reading the same script, then-president of Sony Entertainment Jeff Sagansky suggested Thomas create a romantic comedy pilot.

This led to Thomas being asked to run ABC's 1999 series Snoops, although he left due to creative differences with David E. Kelley before the show aired.

[7] Thomas got his second show picked up in 2004 — the critically successful but again low-rated Veronica Mars, which struggled to boost its audience until it was canceled after a third season in 2007.

He was offered the showrunner position on NBC's Friday Night Lights in 2006, which he declined in favor of the possibility (and eventual reality) of a fourth season of Veronica Mars.

Thomas was also offered and declined CBS's Viva Laughlin in 2007; he joined ABC's Miss/Guided in May 2007 before leaving in July of the same year, again due to creative differences.

[12] In August 2010, Variety reported that NBC had ordered a pilot of a new sitcom, to be called Temp, for which Thomas, Dan Etheridge, and Enbom would be executive producers.

On March 13, 2013, he posted a Kickstarter page for the film, and by 6 PM Pacific Time on the first day, the appeal had already raised over $2 million in pledges.

[23] The resulting film, Veronica Mars, was directed and co-written by Thomas, and released in March 2014; it received positive reviews, and earned $3.5 million.

[24] In November 2013, a pilot based on Chris Roberson and Michael Allred's comic book iZOMBIE was picked up by The CW, with Thomas producing alongside Diane Ruggiero-Wright.