Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the creators of The Office, will hop across the pond to work on their show's American counterpart.

 Mr. Gervais and Mr. Merchant will write an episode of NBC's version of The Office sometime next season, NBC tells Zap2it.com.

Reports about their involvement surfaced in the British press earlier this week.

The NBC hit sitcom has been picked up for a third season of 22 episodes after the show increased its viewing figures by 67% to an average of 10 million a week.

This could mean the possibility of syndication in the future, grossing billions of dollars.

Gervais acts as Executive Producer on the show and has reportedly already made more from the remake than from the original. Apart from change of format deals, The Office is shown in over 80 countries making it the BBCÕs most successful comedy export of all time.

"I had extended an open invitation for them to write or direct at any time, but I think they were smart to wait until we had developed our own following and our own style," says Greg Daniels, executive producer of NBC's Office.




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