Portia de Rossi, Ellen DeGeneres team up on NBC sitcom

Although they won't star side-by-side, wife-and-wife team Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres just sold NBC on a pilot for a show about dueling sisters.

While Rossi will indeed play one of the sibs, Ellen will not be joining her on-screen -- rather, she'll take an off-camera creator/producer role. According to Deadline.com, the show concept ignited a network bidding war with NBC finally landing it with a "pilot commitment."

De Rossi last starred in ABC's "Better Off Ted" and was a member of FOX's ensemble cast of the cult hit "Arrested Development."