During Wednesday's annual upfront presentation of its fall schedule, NBC announced plans to air a spin-off of its Emmy-winning comedy "The Office."

Rumored for some time, the yet untitled project has been ordered to series and is scheduled to premiere after NBC’s broadcast of the Super Bowl on Feb. 1 and will regularly air after the original "Office" at 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays.

"Who would have ever thought that Americans would be subjected to a mock-documentary after the Superbowl?" said Greg Daniels, executive producer of "The Office."

While details about the spin-off are being kept under tight wraps, the show will hopefully take audiences on "another comic journey, complete with new faces and new locations, but with the same unique sense of humor and brand of quality from Daniels and his creative team. It's the next chapter of what viewers have come to know and love about 'The Office.'"

Starring Steve Carell, "The Office" is an adaptation for U.S. TV of BBC's hit of the same name starring Rickey Gervais.

The big announcement was made in front of advertising executives and a crowd of journalists invited to hear about NBC's next TV season which also includes fewer repeats, 13 new episodes of its acclaimed by low-rated "Friday Night Lights," a new version of "Knight Rider," following the two-hour TV movie which aired in February, and a 15th and final season of "ER."

The network's new lineup reflects "aspirational or positive" programming — even on reality shows — that "delivers heroic themes," according to programming chief Ben Silverman, who was hired last year to help the network recover from a long ratings slump. "We will not be doing Moment of Truth on NBC," he said, referring to Fox's lie-detector game show.

"We are doing more original series than we’ve ever done before," Silverman said, crediting his development team with a "profound" burst of creative energy. "We’re bringing more shows to market, we have more of a portfolio, we have more shows coming back than ever before."

As far as "The Office" spin-off is concerned, Silverman said, "We're going to work with Greg, based on whatever he thinks he can deliver for us."