NBC’s summer fare will be one-third original

One third of NBC’s programming during the summer months will consist of original programs, the network said Tuesday. While a large portion of that percentage will be represented by new editions of its Dateline news magazine and its game show The Weakest Link, the network said that it will also be giving try-outs to a number of other programs, several of them reality-based. Among them are: Fear Factor, in which contestants are forced to confront their worst phobias; Spy TV, which bears a strong resemblance to Candid Camera; and Lost, in which contestants are stranded in an undisclosed location and challenged to find their way home; and the Carsey-Werner produced The Downer Channel, which the company describes as a “maddening mosaic of scripted sketches, reports from the real world and animated pieces that will take the darkly comedic view of the frustrations of modern life.”