BY DAVID KRONKE >MAYOR OF TELEVISION

Having given up on the 2007-08 season, NBC announced a slew of new and returning shows under the theme "All-American Summer" that'll fill the time until they bring you the Olympics from, uh, China.

Not to be outdone, CBS announced that it will be airing a couple of scripted series during the summer in a desperate quest to burn them off while nobody's noticing.

NBC's umbrella title "All-American

Summer" was apparently inspired by the fact that a couple of the shows already had some variation of the word "America" in their names. Why they didn't just step up and shoehorn "America" into the rest of the shows is anyone's guess, but I'll do that for them.

"American Gladiators" returns May 19 at 8 p.m. "America's Got Talent" - executive-produced by Brit Simon Cowell (so much for "All-American") returns June 24 at 9 p.m.

On May 22, "Last Comic Standing" "America's Laughing With You, Not At You" will return at 9:30 p.m. before settling into its 8:30 p.m. time slot on the 29th. Anti-All-American Alert: Comics from around the planet will be competing, and the co-host is yet another Brit.

"Fear Itself" - let's rename it "America Itself" - premieres on May 29 at 10 p.m. And guess what: This isn't some crappy reality show, but a horror anthology series featuring work by John Landis and other directors who've actually made Hollywood movies (we're not promising they were good Hollywood movies) and featuring people you may very well have heard of: Brandon Routh ("Superman Returns"), Shiri Appleby ("Charlie Wilson's War"), Elisabeth Moss ("Mad Men"), Cynthia Watros ("Lost"), Eric Roberts ("Heroes") and John Billingsley ("Star Trek: Enterprise").

An anthology show hasn't worked in pretty much forever, but did we mention it's not a crappy reality show?

"Nashville (Which Is In America) Star," a reality-competition show NBC cadged off some cable network, debuts June 9 at

9:30 p.m. Billy Ray Cyrus, fresh off his triumph of being Miley Cyrus' father, will host, and the winner will get to go to Beijing during the Olympics, where they really love their country music, and if s/he doesn't humiliate him/herself and his/her paperwork is in order, s/he'll be allowed to return home and not spend the rest of his/her days in a labor camp.

The idea behind the generously titled "Celebrity Circus," which should probably just be called "Slightly Better Known Than the Average American Circus," may induce cringing, so those with genteel sensibilities may want to go rent "Hostel 2" instead. "(C)elebrities ... participate alongside avant-garde professional circus troupes in a visually arresting new competition series." Call it "Cirque du Schlock."

But wait! "The series will ... showcase some of the most death-defying circus acts ever seen on television!" Perhaps this is just an altruistic measure on behalf of NBC to cull the celebutard herd. It premieres June 11 at 9 p.m.

And on June 25, NBC uncorks "Baby Borrowers," which was supposed to debut last month and which I've previously raved about. In it, teenage couples considering parenthood are quickly disabused of the notion when given the chance to take care of babies, toddlers, preteens and so on.

CBS is also presenting some summertime original programming: "Swingtown," an "Ice Storm"-type drama starring Molly Parker ("Deadwood") and Jack Davenport as a couple who move into a Chicago suburb and there's wife-swapping and drugs and drinking and debauchery but nothing like you'd see on Showtime, premieres May 29 at

10 p.m. Which puts it up against "Fear Itself," meaning two of the exceedingly few examples of original scripted programming will be competing against each other, while everywhere else it'll be reruns and reality.

Also coming to CBS on an undetermined date is "Flashpoint," the network's co-production with Canadian TV, "an emotional journey into the tough, risk-filled lives of a group of cops." Enrico Colantoni ("Veronica Mars") stars. With original cable programming chewing up the broadcast networks and leaving them for dead in the summer, it'd be nice to think that "Fear Itself," "Swingtown" and "Flashpoint" represent the networks pushing back against cable. But more likely they're just burning these shows off.

`Lights' to shine again?

Blogger Nikki Finke is reporting that "Friday Night Lights" has survived a fourth-and-long situation: NBC has renewed the low-rated but rabidly beloved series for a third season by partnering in its production with DirecTV.

Under the plan, DirecTV would get to present the series multiple times on its service (likely, on its Channel 101), giving TiVo-less fans more opportunities to watch it. Otherwise, I'm not sure what the upside is for DirecTV, since its fan base is pretty small and they can't really call this an exclusive since other cable and satellite services will still be able to show it via NBC and perhaps one of its cable networks like USA, and NBC will have it available online.

But Finke got at least one thing wrong: The fan campaign involved sending light bulbs to NBC executives, not mini-footballs. Neither trade has confirmed this deal yet, and NBC wouldn't comment when I asked. So this might be another of her writers-strike-will-be-over-mid-December "exclusives."