For all NBC’s talk of bold summer scheduling and an early start to the season, it looks like this summer will be pretty similar to last, with a large dose of reality and at least one regular-season leftover patching the remaining holes.
  The network announced the premiere of several summer shows, most of them returning versions of summer hits past. 
  The notable exceptions are the new “Come to Papa,” a sitcom slated for midseason earlier this year but bumped to the summer thanks to middling buzz, and new reality show “The Next Action Star.”
   NBC joins CBS in announcing its summer schedule, with the latter saying Friday that reality shows "Big Brother" and "Amazing Race" would be back. Fox, which plans a heavy lineup of new shows, including dramas and sitcoms in addition to reality, is expected to release its summer lineup in the next few weeks. ABC, which will probably go lighter on the new summer fare just like last year, will do the same.
   “Papa” gets the coveted Thursday 8:30 p.m. slot, airing presumably after the final batch of “Friends” repeats on the network starting June 3. 
   That’s really the only place to slot in a sitcom, as Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays will be filled with reality like “Action Star.”
   “Action Star” is exactly what it sounds like: the search for America’s next action film hero or heroine that NBC began talking about last year.
  The 10-episode show debuts June 15 at 8 p.m. and will continue on Tuesdays until the two winners are selected. Then on Aug. 11, the two will star in the Silver Pictures movie “Hit Me” at 9 p.m. on NBC.
  Three of NBC’s solid summer reality shows from last season also return: “Last Comic Standing,” which built surprising momentum through its finale, “For Love or Money,” which spurred a spinoff last year, and “Who Wants to Marry My Dad?”
   “Love” premieres June 7 with a two-hour episode at 9 p.m. It will regularly air at 8 p.m. Mondays for its 12-episode run.
   “Dad,” with a limited six-episode run, will premiere June 14 at 10 p.m. and continue on Mondays.
   The 14-episode “Comic” will debut its second season June 8, also with a two-hour episode, at 8 p.m. The show will air at 9 p.m. Tuesdays.
  No start date has been announced for the second season of “The Restaurant,” though NBC is still expected to debut it this summer.
  The Summer Olympics will begin airing on NBC Aug. 13 and continue through Aug. 29.
   CBS also announced some new programming for this summer. Friday the network said it will bring back the cult hit “Amazing Race” for a fifth season in a Tuesday reality block with “Big Brother 5” starting July 6. Both shows will premiere with 90-minute episodes, “Brother’s” going first at 8 p.m.
  Starting the next week, “Brother” will move to 9 p.m. and “Race” to 10 p.m. Tuesdays.
   The return of “Race” had been in doubt after it flailed during the regular season in several time slots.
   But it did decently when some episodes were bumped to the summer last year, and an Emmy for best reality series last fall boosted it back onto the CBS schedule.
   “Brother” has remained a summer show throughout its run, and last year had some of the best numbers in its history, though it has never reached “Survivor”- or even “Bachelor”-sized popularity.
   “Brother” will air Tuesdays, Thursdays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 9 p.m., with Thursday being the live eviction episode.
   CBS’s other summer reality offering, “The Will,” has not set a debut date. “The Will” aired disastrously on ABC last year before CBS bought the rights this season.