Where a sexy, headline-friendly scandal like the recent Ashley Madison hack goes, TV producers, being an opportunistic lot, tend to follow. The inevitable Law & Order episode hasn’t been announced yet (it’s coming, though, mark our words), but a lucky Toronto-based production company is currently pitching a TV series based on Ashley Madison itself.
The project—which is not to be confused with the Ashley Madison-approved drama “inspired by the site’s users” that was announced last year—is tentatively titled Thank You Ashley Madison and written by Justified alum Jennifer Kennedy and Ian Macdonald. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show tells the story of the founding of Ashley Madison, albeit with one tweak: Rather than a man who calls himself “the king of infidelity,” the main character will be a “good mother” who launches an affair-friendly dating site in order to support herself and her kids. You know, like the mom who started selling weed to support herself and her kids on that one show. What was it called?
“Any time 30 million people are doing anything, it becomes worthy of a real discussion,” co-producer Courtney Hazlett says. (Or any time a premium cable network runs a series for eight seasons, for that matter.) But while changing the main character to a mom in desperate circumstances makes Thank You Ashley Madison appear rather derivative, it was an arguable necessity. If you saw the real Ashley Madison founder’s website, you’d understand.
The Rentboy.com-based spinoff is also still forthcoming.