Footballers' Wives Goes Stateside

Footballers' Wives is heading to the US after it was sold to ABC, but instead of scoring goals they will be making touchdowns instead.

The stateside version of the ITV1 show will be made by Touchstone Television and produced by comedy writer Marco Pennette, whose credits include Ugly Betty.

The ABC show will feature the same over-the-top plotlines and characters, but it will be centred around American football, not that the UK version of the show ever featured much sporting action anyway.

Footballers' Wives, which is produced by Shed Productions, ran for five series on ITV1 and aired in the US on BBC America.

Touchstone-based producer Chris Brancato said: "It's aspirational. It's about what happens when, overnight, regular people get the American dream."

The US version of the show will be co-executive produced by Shed's managing director, Eileen Gallagher, along with its creators, Ann McManus and Maureen Chadwick.

Shed Productions has also sold the format to another of its ITV1 hits, Bad Girls, to US cable network FX.

ABC, the home of Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy, has also commissioned an American version of BBC1 hit Life on Mars, made by Kudos.

Brancato told Variety the show will "take the [original] characters and give them an American spin", with many of the original storylines expected to be repeated in the ABC show.