Written by Nicole Pedersen

 

New HBO head Sue Naegle secured the series rights for "Bad Girls" after FX failed to develop the series. She has tapped "Six Feet Under" creator/writer Alan Ball to helm this, her first major project at the network. Ball received an Oscar for his "American Beauty" screenplay and is also handling HBO's upcoming "True Blood."

Naegle took over as HBO Entertainment President after an internal network shake-up a few months back. The once mighty pay-cabler has seen ratings plummet as newer series like "In Treatment" and "John From Cincinnati" failed to deliver the high ratings the network had enjoyed through the tenure of "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City."

I have never seen the British series, but I am sharp enough to realize that the combination of women in prison and the title "Bad Girls" is going to add up to a built in audience of curious lookie-loos as soon as the show launches. Of course it doesn't hurt that old-school HBO fans still worship the memory of Alan Ball and "Six Feet Under," so if "Bad Girls" can deliver more than shower scenes and cat fights, I think that Naegle will have her first dirty, dirty hit.

I would normally include a link to the Hollywood reporter story at this point, to see why I haven't, read this.