26 May 2005, after series four of Footballers' Wives. Several characters from the original programme appeared, including Bruno and Lucy Milligan, Seb Webb, Harley and Shannon Lawson, Katie Jones, and Amber Gates. The first series of Extra Time features Tanya Turner's sister, Anika Beevor. Series two began on 23 February 2006 with Peter Ash as Darius Fry and Julie Legrand as Janette Dunkley from the original series as regular cast members. Nicholas Ball, who portrayed Garry Ryan in the series, crossed over to Footballers' Wives for series five as the new Chairman of Earl's Park Football Club. The series' executive producer was Cameron Roach. It was shown in the United States under the name Footballers' Wives: Overtime. Adaptations and successors In 2005, RTL in Germany adapted the programme as Das geheime Leben der Spielerfrauen (The Secret Life of Footballers' Wives). The original scripts were rewritten to appeal to a German audience, and the show was cancelled after only four episodes. Mediaset produced its own version of the series in Italy, called Ho sposato un calciatore (I Married a Footballer), which was written and directed by Stefano Sollima and lasted for four episodes on Canale 5 in 2005. It stars Paolo Seganti and Jane Alexander as Bruno and Tonia Caracci, Karin Proia and Edoardo Leo as Anna and Vito Palma, Maria Elena Vandone as Crystal Ferrari, and Mirko Petrini as Luca Martelli. A US version, called Football Wives and focusing on an American football team, was developed for ABC in 2007. The pilot episode, written by Marco Pennette and directed by Bryan Singer, starred Lucy Lawless and Eddie Cibrian as Tanya and Jason Austin, James Van Der Beek and Kiele Sanchez as Brian and Donna Reynolds, Gabrielle Union as Chardonnay Lane, Brian J. White as Kyle Jameson, Holly Robinson-Peete as Jackie Jameson, and Ving Rhames as Frank Wallingford. Football Wives was not picked up for series for the fall 2007 season, but The Hollywood Reporter later reported that the production company ABC Studios had extended its options on the show's cast, and that NBC and FOX, even The CW were interested in the series. A number of websites, including Digital Spy, speculated that Football Wives was not picked up due to potential conflicts with the National Football League and ABC sister network's ESPN's Monday Night Football and broad surrounding NFL programming deal. In Canada, CBC Television launched MVP in early 2008.