Summer comes early for NBC

By James Hibberd

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - NBC is getting a running start on its summer original programming.

The network will launch the new seasons of "American Gladiators" and "Last Comic Standing" and the series premiere of the horror anthology series "Fear Itself" during the May sweep, a key period when local stations use ratings data to determine advertising rates. Four shows will follow in June.

The goal is to wrap up most of NBC's summer original series in time to focus the network on complete coverage of the Beijing Olympics in August.

The reality-and-Olympics combo will be promoted as part of NBC's "All-American Summer." Several of the titles will get supersized treatment. For the first time, USA Network import "Nashville Star" and "Last Comic Standing" will run as 90-minute episodes every week. Summer flagship "America's Got Talent" will be expanded to more than 30 hours total.

The expansion follows a reality trend where 90s are the new 60s. Networks increasingly are bulking up unscripted shows beyond the traditional one-hour weekly time period. After Fox's megahit "American Idol" spread to three nights a week, expansion strategies were adopted by ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," NBC's "Deal or No Deal" and "The Biggest Loser."

NBC also will scatter original episodes of "Deal" throughout summer for the first time, using the popular game show to build a lead-in audience for premiere episodes.

Between launching summer shows in May and pushing in-season stable "Deal" into summer, the lineup could be seen as making good on NBC's vow to adopt a more year-around scheduling strategy.

Here are the premiere dates: