US networks reveal autumn TV lineup

British TV dramas Life on Mars, Eleventh Hour and comedy Worst Week of My Life will take centre stage in the new American TV season after US networks ABC and CBS confirmed they would remake the shows. ABC has thrown its weight behind BBC1 detective drama Life on Mars, while CBS has picked up BBC1 comedy Worst Week of My Life and ITV1 science fiction drama Eleventh Hour for the key autumn season.

The orders came as the American networks unveiled their autumn programming strategies at the New York "upfront" presentations for advertisers. Life on Mars, in which a detective finds himself back to 1973, is being billed as one of ABC's main new shows and is expected to be given the high profile Thursday 10pm slot - formerly held by Lost - airing after hit hospital drama Grey's Anatomy. After lengthy negotiations, the project moved from producer David E Kelley and 20th Century Fox TV to a co-production with ABC Studios and UK producer Kudos Film and Television. Three new showrunners - the executives who lead production - have been brought in.

ABC has ordered just one other new series for the season: reality show Opportunity Knocks, which is being produced by Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher. The network will bring back current shows Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Brothers and Sisters and Dancing with the Stars.

Pushing Daisies, seen on ITV1 in the UK, and Channel 4's Dirty Sexy Money will also return while comedy Scrubs, seen on Channel 4 in the UK, will move over to ABC from NBC.

The broadcaster has also signed up new series of UK formats Wife Swap and Supernanny. "We're returning our dominant core group of shows from last fall," the ABC Entertainment president, Steve McPherson, told US trade bible Variety. "The few openings we had we've filled with the kind of quality programming viewers have come to expect from ABC, and we have a very strong bench."

Sci-fi thriller Eleventh Hour, which aired in the UK in 2006, featured Patrick Stewart as a government investigator probing cases involving scientific anomalies. The American version will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Granada Television International for Warner Brothers TV and will star British actor Rufus Sewell in the lead role. It is being adapted by British writer Mick Davis.

Worst Week of My Life, which features a young couple preparing for their wedding and dealing with their in-laws, will be renamed Worst Week and star US actors Kyle Bornheimer and Erin Hayes. It has been adapted by writer Matt Tarses for Universal Media Studios and British producer Hat Trick productions.