Hit comedy Modern Family heading Down Under to film a special episode

EXCLUSIVE: Forget Ellen and Oprah, the world's most watched TV family - Modern Family - is headed to Australia. Plus: Sofia Vergara gallery.

The cast of Modern Family / Picture: Supplied

FORGET Ellen and Oprah, the world's most watched TV family - Modern Family - is headed to Australia to film a special episode, in an unprecedented tourism coup for the nation.

The hit comedy has signed a deal with Qantas to film its first vacation episode outside of the US, with Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef leading the charge as likely destinations.

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Modern Family, Channel 10 / Picture: Supplied

The deal, announced in Los Angeles today, will see the entire cast flown to Australia for two weeks of filming and events next month, with the exposure to its bumper worldwide audience expected to pump several tens of millions of dollars into the Australian economy.

Featuring glamour Sofia Vergara and the affable Ed O'Neil, Modern Family boasts an audience of up to 13 million in the US, is among the top five rated shows in the UK and Australia, and is quickly gathering momentum in mass markets across South America and India.

The cast of Modern Family / Picture: Supplied

Including DVD sales and TV re-runs, more than 100 million people across the globe watch an episode of the "mockumentary-style'' comedy, easily beating the combined reach of the now defunct Oprah Winfrey Show and the Ellen Show - previous visitors to Australia.

The groundbreaking Qantas deal comes after the raging success of its promotion of Australia through the popular Ellen Show, which filmed an episode in the country last March.

Ellen's Australian sojourn helped drive a 22 per cent spike in inbound ticket sales from the US to Australia, delivered 62 million impressions on the Qantas website and created 220,000 sales leads for business and services in New South Wales alone.

Picture: Supplied

The airline also partnered with Tourism Australia in December 2010 to bring Oprah Winfrey to

Australia to film a series of episodes, with the total worldwide viewing audience of Oprah's Ultimate Australian Adventures sitting at just over 41 million. The visit added an extra $20 million to the coffers of tourism operators, courtesy of the flood of US visitors after the three shows were aired in January 2011 - not bad for a $5 million investment.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the airline, which recently revealed that Modern Family was the most selected TV program on its in-flight entertainment system, was passionate about thinking outside the square in its promotion of Australia.

"We are excited to partner with Twentieth Century Fox to promote what Australia has to offer to the world through this special holiday episode,'' he said.

"The humour of the show is a great fit with Australia's own and as the national carrier we are proud to support this innovative way of encouraging more people to fly here.''

"Qantas is the biggest private investor in promoting Australia as a destination and the United States is one of the biggest source markets for people visiting our country. An estimated 25 million people will watch this episode when it first airs, which is fantastic exposure and great news for tourism.''

The deal between Qantas and Modern Family - which is distributed by 20th Century Fox and aired in Australia on Channel 10 and has won 30 awards, including 14 Emmys and one Golden Globe - does not include funding from either national or state tourism bodies.

Once final destinations are locked in, the airline will begin to consult with tourism and government associations about maximising the opportunities the visit will have for the particular states and the nation.

But one thing the episodes will not have is a same-sex wedding.

One of the show's stars, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, said Australia's anti-same sex marriage laws will prevent his character Mitchell from marrying on-screen partner Cameron when the show films here next month.

"Marriage isn't legal here, so we're not going to get married in Australia," Ferguson said, teasing "maybe we'll have to go to New Zealand and get married there, show (Australia) what they're missing."

A trip down the aisle for one of TV's favourite pairings is set to feature in the fifth season of the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning comedy.

Ferguson flew to Sydney and Melbourne with his real-life husband Justin Mikita late last year, with the couple continuing their advocacy for same sex unions.

The 38-year-old, who married Mikita in New York last July, said the show was proud of the role it has played in changing views on gay rights and marriage equality.

"We don't have an agenda, per se but we do have a point of view, you know ... at the end of the day we're making a comedy and we just want to make people laugh.

"But Eric Stonestreet and I both can't ignore the fact the show has social ramifications and is a cultural touchstone for what's happening in our real world right now, so we do take that with a grain of pride."

He denied the series were "pulling out a soap box to stand on ... that's just not true to our show."

"But it is a very exciting show to be a part of because I think a lot of minds have been changed about marriage equality because people who might not have been for it look at Cameron and Mitchell and see it's such a safe couple, they're both in their living rooms every night, (viewers) love the couple so much, they see what good fathers they are and they want them to be happy.

A lot of people have come up to me and said `I've changed my mind about marriage equality because of the show which is a really beautiful thing. I think you get farther with levity and humour than you do with a bull horn."

New episodes of Modern Family are set to return to Ten after its coverage of the Sochi Olympics.

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Modern Family star Sofia Vergara / Picture: AFP

Picture: Supplied