‘WEST Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin has sold a new series to NBC – after what was described as an “intense bidding war” – about life backstage at a show very much like “Saturday Night Live.”

Only trouble is, “SNL” star Tina Fey already has a show in the works about . . . life backstage at a show very much like “Saturday Night Live.”

Fey’s show – as yet unnamed – was already being cast and was set to premiere sometime after January.

Sorkin sold the show based on the first episode for a one-hour drama called “Studio 7 on the Sunset Strip,” according to trade reports.

The show is about what goes on at a long-running comedy sketch show based in L.A.

NBC is said to have paid nearly $21 million to get the show for next fall. Sorkin has been out of TV since leaving “The West Wing” two years ago.

There is a legitimate question about who had the idea first.

Sorkin mentioned a behind-the-scenes-at-“SNL” show during a 2003 interview on the “Charlie Rose” show.

“I hope it’s going to be what ‘Larry Sanders‘ did with . . . talk shows,” he said then. “I would like to do that with late-night sketch comedy – with ‘Saturday Night Live’ in other words.”

Also two years ago, Fey signed a new deal with “SNL” that included specifics about starring in a prime-time series for NBC.

Last week, Lorne Michaels, the head honcho at “SNL” and producer of the new Fey series, declined a request from The Post to talk about the Sorkin series – an indication that he was already upset about the competing series.

Meanwhile, Fey and her husband had their first baby last month – an arrival that may have played a role in the network’s decision.

In an e-mail yesterday, an NBC spokesman said: “We’re proceeding with the Tina Fey comedy and are excited about it.” But he could not answer questions about whether the network intended to air two series based on “SNL.”