Channel 4 turns to 'orrible Ozzy as Ally McBeal loses her appeal

Television: C4 snaps up the rights to unlikely hit US docusoap about the foul-mouthed, bat-biting, drug-battered dinosaur of rock

She is a stick-thin, 30-something singleton whose overriding ambition is to find Mr Right and procreate as soon as possible. He is a 53-year-old hellraiser whose exploits have ranged from biting the head off a bat to urinating on the Alamo memorial while dressed in drag.

On the face of it, Ozzy Osbourne couldn't be a more unlikely replacement for Ally McBeal in the armoury Channel 4 is assembling to lead its charge for higher ratings. But programmers have decided the Birmingham-born rocker could be just the person to fill the gap in their schedules created by the passing of everyone's favourite lovesick lawyer.

The Osbournes, a fly-on-the-wall American show about the antics of heavy metal legend Ozzy and his dysfunctional brood, is to air on Channel 4 later this year.

In the few short weeks since it started on American television, the low-budget MTV docusoap has become George Bush's favourite show, the former Black Sabbath star from a sagging has-been into a born-again US superstar.

The programme is due to make its British debut on MTV UK at the end of next month. All being well, it will then be shown on Channel 4, which after a low-key bidding war has scooped the terrestrial TV rights for £200,000 – a fraction of the millions it reportedly paid three years ago for the Ally McBeal rights.

"The deal's not absolutely finalised yet, but the plan is that it's coming to Channel 4," a source at the station confirmed. "We've only paid for the terrestrial rights, so it won't be showing on E4 first. There is no fixed transmission date yet, but the intention is that it will start on Channel 4 later this year."

In the world of television rights, the bargain basement price paid by Channel 4 for The Osbournes may sound like peanuts, but industry insiders believe future deals will be worth far more.

Only 10 episodes of the show, recorded over a six-month period, have so far been made. Its unexpected success has thrown producers, who are now frantically scrambling to piece together enough footage from existing out-takes to assemble more.

However, in light of the five-million-plus viewing figures and mammoth overseas profile the series has attained, persuading Ozzy and co to open their doors for a re-match is likely to be trickier. Few doubt that next time round they will not come so cheaply. It is understood that both ITV and Channel 5 considered buying the rights, with at least one putting in a tentative bid.

By the time they make their debut on British TV screens on 25 May, Ozzy, his long-suffering wife Sharon, and rebellious children Kelly, 17, and Jack, 16, will need little introduction. With more than a month to go, images of the family alternately rowing and relaxing in their crucifix-filled Beverly Hills mansion have already become commonplace in newspapers.

Ozzy's day-to-day antics in the programme range from the characteristically bizarre to the crushingly banal.

As befits a veteran hellraiser, whose stage act has consisted of throwing raw offal into the audience, he spends almost an entire episode trying to find a bayonet for the rifle he keeps under his bed. On other occasions he takes half an hour to fathom out an instruction manual for a remote control.

Among the highlights of the show thus far has been an exchange between Ozzy and his wife in which she suggests filling the stage with bubbles at his next concert. "Bubbles?" a visibly exasperated Ozzy replies. "Sharon, I'm the Prince of fucking Darkness!"

A spokeswoman for the singer, who was "unavailable for comment" last week because of a hectic round of studio appearances in New York and Los Angeles, said she could not confirm if there would be another series.

"There has been a lot of speculation over here about that, but we don't know at the moment," she said. "We're about seven episodes in and Ozzy's become huge over here, so the producers are trying to use everything they've got left to make some more."