In the spirit of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", LA Law and Ally McBeal producer David E Kelley, previously an outspoken critic of the US reality TV boom, is to make a reality show with a cast made up of real lawyers.
Mr Kelley and the show's other producers will be setting up their own law firm for the NBC show and hiring lawyers to try real civil cases, under an American practice known as alternative dispute resolution, which allows for binding legal arbitration outside of court.
The move is something of a u-turn for Mr Kelley, who last summer launched an outspoken attack on network executives for commissioning more and more reality shows, which he described as "junk" and "trash".
Mr Kelley said his change of heart was down to the strength of the idea for the legal reality show, which came from independent producer Renegade 83, the company behind the US version of Blind Date.
"I'm not a big fan of reality television and I'm still not a big fan of those productions that pander to the lowest common denominator. [But] the folks at Renegade wanted to meet and discuss the series and I loved the idea," Mr Kelley told American entertainment magazine Variety.
"It's a documentary meets a drama. We'll be creating our own law firm. We'll have our own [team] of lawyers and they'll become our main characters," he added.
Mr Kelley said he was not planning a full time switch to producing reality shows, adding that "this one's unique to my interest in law".
He will take a consulting producer role for the show, which has been commissioned for an eight-part series by NBC.
Mr Kelley said he would be giving Renegade access to his team of script editors and composers so that the reality show could be storylined in the same way as shows such as LA Law, Ally McBeal and The Practice, with serial elements that continue over several episodes.
The move by Mr Kelley, one of America's most prominent and successful drama and comedy producers over the past decade, highlights the growing trend for reality hits such as American Idol, The Apprentice and Joe Millionaire to replace scripted shows in the primetime schedules of the US networks.
American comedy and drama producers and writers are under increasing pressure because the runaway success of reality TV in the past four years means there are fewer and fewer slots for scripted shows, which have dominated network schedules for the past two or three decades.
This autumn NBC, once the home of sitcom hits including Seinfeld, Frasier and Friends, will launch just four new comedies - the lowest number on the network since 1980.
Mr Kelley felt the heat from the reality TV boom last year, when his successful ABC legal drama The Practice took a hammering in the ratings after being scheduled directly against Fox hit Joe Millionaire.
He was forced to take drastic action and sack half the cast to save The Practice, prompting his anti-reality rant at a Television Critics Association event last summer.
"Today [network bosses] celebrate the junk. Where once they were ashamed, now they throw a parade for it," Mr Kelley said at the time.
However, he also admitted ruefully that his wife, Hollywood star Michelle Pfeiffer, was a fan of Joe Millionaire.
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