Actress Patricia Heaton is set to return to a familiar role - the Everybody Loves Raymond star will play a stressed-out mom in a new TV sitcom.

The star has signed to appear in new comedy The Middle, which centers on the lives of an American Midwestern family in the eyes of a mother - Heaton. And the role won't be too much of a stretch for the 50-year-old, after she played Ray Romano's long-suffering wife Debra in the hit show, which ran for nearly ten years before ending in 2005.

Heaton, a two-time Emmy award winner, beat out competition from talk show host Ricki Lake, who in 2006 was originally eyed by TV bosses for the new role. The actress made an unsuccessful return to TV earlier this year, starring opposite Kelsey Grammer in Back To You. The show was canceled in May.

The Middle will start shooting in February 2009.

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(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)