'Starter Wife' evolves on USA Posted by DarkUFO at Wednesday, October 17, 2007 (View Comments) Labels: Cancelled Shows

After a successful run as a spring miniseries, "The Starter Wife" is morphing into a weekly series for USA Network.

Cabler has greenlit production on 10 hourlong episodes of the Debra Messing starrer, which snagged 10 Emmy noms and one statuette. Barring delays from a WGA strike, lensing is slated to start in March for an early summer 2008 premiere.

"Starter Wife" the series will have Messing reprising her role as newly divorced Molly Kagan. Universal Media Studios will produce.

USA programming topper Jeff Wachtel said a combination of factors led to the decision to expand "Starter Wife" into a skein.

"In part, it was the general commercial success, and in part it was the pleasant surprise of all the Emmy nominations," he said. "But more than anything else, it was the creative team. They really had a great language with each other and wanted to work together again."

While "Starter Wife" was designed to be a standalone project that would serve as the launching pad for USA's summer lineup, Wachtel said that "part of one eye was focused on a possible upside" of turning it into a franchise. There was talk of simply doing another sequel, but the cabler ultimately opted for a series greenlight.

Source: Variety