"Nashville" star of NBC summer set

By Nellie Andreeva

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - USA Network's "Nashville Star" is moving to NBC, which will launch a sixth season of the country singing contest in the summer, along with the second season of "American Gladiators."

The two unscripted shows will serve as cornerstones of the network's "NBC's All-American Summer" promo campaign leading into NBC Universal's coverage of the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

After the fifth season of "Nashville" aired on USA a year ago, the cable channel indicated that it wasn't planning to renew the series.

Multicity auditions for "Nashville" will begin in February. For the first time, the series will be open not just to solo artists but also to duets and singing groups.

This is the second time in the past month that NBC has reached to sister cable network USA for original programming. In part as a strike contingency, NBC recently closed a deal to recycle USA's hit comedy dramas "Monk" and "Psych."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter