Devious Maids is based on the Mexican TV series Ellas son... la alegría del hogar, created by Eugenio Derbez, and was also heavily influenced by creator Marc Cherry's previous series Desperate Housewives.

The show was originally developed for ABC, which ordered a pilot in January 2012, but ABC ultimately passed on it in May 2012; Lifetime then picked it up with a thirteen-episode order in June 2012.

Eva Longoria, who had previously worked with Marc Cherry on Desperate Housewives, joined as an executive producer to help add perspective to the Latina roles.

In May 2012, Roselyn Sánchez made a cameo appearance in the series finale of Desperate Housewives, 'Finishing the Hat,' already playing her Devious Maids character Carmen Luna.

Several actors from Desperate Housewives appeared in guest roles on Devious Maids, including Richard Burgi, Andrea Parker, Jolie Jenkins, Patrika Darbo, Dakin Matthews, and Liz Torres.

Ana Ortiz's character Marisol was originally conceived simply as one of the four maids, but was later changed to a former professor who goes undercover as a maid.

For season 4, Eva Longoria appeared as a guest star, and James Denton, her former Desperate Housewives co-star, was cast in a recurring role as Peter Hudson.

The pilot episode was filmed in Los Angeles and directed by Paul McGuigan, but after Lifetime picked up the series, production moved to Atlanta, Georgia.

The season 1 finale became the show's highest-rated episode with 3 million viewers, while season 2 averaged only 1.8 million viewers per episode and the season 3 premiere drew 1.5 million.

Rotten Tomatoes gave season 1 an approval rating of 72% based on 29 critic reviews with an average score of 6.8/10, while Metacritic gave it a weighted average score of 63 out of 100 based on 21 critics.

After Lifetime cancelled the show in September 2016 leaving it on an unresolved cliffhanger, executive producer Curtis Kheel revealed the answers to the cliffhangers and where the characters' stories would have gone, despite fan petitions for the series to continue elsewhere.