ABC Orders Pilot for Ellen DeGeneres' 'The Smart One'

Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Ellen DeGeneres

ABC is getting into business with Ellen DeGeneres.

The network has handed a pilot order to half-hour, multicamera comedy The Smart One, written by Don Todd and starring Portia De Rossi.

The Smart One, one of two projects DeGeneres has in development, centers on a brilliant and successful woman who begrudginly goes to work for her less-brainy but more popular sister -- a former beauty queen, weather girl and now mayor of a big city. De Rossi will play one of the two sisters.

The Warner Bros. TV-A Very Good Production project will be executive produced by DeGeneres and Lauren Corrao.

In October, the project was originally given a pilot order at NBC and marks De Rossi's first TV gig since ABC's Better Off Ted.