Nellie Andreeva

From four desperate housewives on Wisteria Lane to a quartet of devious maids in Beverly Hills: Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry has set up a new hourlong soap at ABC. Titled Devious Maids, it is an adaptation of the Mexican telenovela The Disorderly Maids Of The Neighborhood. The Televisa format was identified by former WMA executive John Mass and manager-producers Larry Shuman and David Lonner, who then took it to Cherry. Cherry will write the script and executive produce with his Cherry/Wind Prods partner Sabrina Wind as well as Oasis Media Group’s Lonner and Mass and The Shuman Co.’s Shuman. ABC Studios is producing.

The ABC series will be loosely based on the Televisa format and will center on four Latina women who are maids in Beverly Hills. The original, which is prepping its second season, revolves around five housekeepers — Silvia, Maribel, Adela, Guillermina and Carmela — who work in a quiet residential condominium where nothing ever happens until the residents became divided over a decision to build a swimming pool amidst a severe water shortage. One of tenants then mysteriously disappears, a suitcase full of money appears — along with a dead body at the bottom of the half-finished pool — and Silvia, Maribel, Adela, Carmela and Guillermina find themselves in the middle of it all.

After seven years at the helm of Desperate Housewives, Paradigm-repped Cherry stepped down as showrunner in May but continues as an executive producer on the long-running dramedy’s final season. He has spiritual drama Hallelujah still in contention at ABC after recently turning in a new script.

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