Corporation snaps up hot US sitcom

The BBC has snapped up the rights to a raunchy US sitcom, before most American viewers have even seen it.

Executives outbid rival terrestrial and satellite channels to secure the rights of Good Girls Don't after viewing just one episode.

In the States, the show has just started its run on Oprah Winfrey's Oxygen cable network, which wanted around £60,000 an episode for UK rights.

It stars a cast of unknowns, and is described as "a subversive series showing what twentysomethings really say, think and do. An uncompromising yet riotously irreverent look at five flawed friends who will go to just about any length to find love, happiness, or - at the very least - a promising hook-up."

Its original name was My Best Friend Is A Big Fat Slut.

George McGhee, the BBC's controller of programme acquisition, told The Times: "When you see a comedy as funny as Good Girls Don't, you have to put your money where your mouth is. We snapped it up immediately."

Good Girls Don't will launch on BBC3 this autumn and then transfer to BBC2 alongside another US import, Arrested Development.

Published: 7 Jun 2004