TV program distributor King World may be planning for life without Martha Stewart.

The company has decided to go ahead with production of a new morning talk show with co-hosts Alexandra Wentworth, the wife of George Stephanopoulos, and former ABC News correspondent Jack Ford, for launch in the fall of 2003.

New York’s WCBS has already signed on to air the show, and the other CBS-owned TV stations are expected to follow.

The move immediately prompted speculation that King World, which distributes “Martha Stewart Living,” wants to have another program in the works in the event Stewart’s legal problems ultimately prevent her from continuing her show.

The homemaking guru is being investigated for insider stock trading.

A spokeswoman for WCBS said it was “premature” to discuss scheduling plans for “Living It Up” or the future of Stewart’s program.

As first reported by the Daily News, King World’s new program, tentatively titled “Living It Up,” is similar in format to “Live with Regis & Kelly.”

“Living It Up” was in the works well before Stewart’s troubles became news, according to a King World source and other TV business insiders.

“King World had been looking at potential projects before any of the Martha stuff happened,” said one executive involved in the syndication business. “They needed to develop something for the morning.”

But the new program can be insurance for King World in the event Stewart’s time period becomes available for reasons beyond its control.

“That’s how it’s being seen,” the executive said.

Ford and Wentworth shot a pilot for “Living It Up” last month. According to people who have seen the test show, Wentworth and Ford work together in the same way as Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa.

“Jack is the straight guy and she’s kind of off-the-wall and upbeat,” said one insider.

The show, done in New York, will have celebrity interviews and how-to segments that will be done in conjunction with the editors from Hearst Magazines, publisher of Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Popular Mechanics and numerous other titles.

Wentworth was in the original cast of the Fox sketch show “In Living Color” and has been a regular on “The Tonight Show.” Her husband, who made a brief appearance in the pilot, will become the solo anchor of ABC’s “This Week” next month.

Ford, a former trial lawyer, most recently was a co-anchor on ABC’s “20/20.”