The strikes may have just ended a month ago, but NBC is wasting no time getting their shows back on the air before the usual summer hiatus. First to return will be “My Name is Earl” on April 3rd followed by “American Gladiators” on May 12 and “Last Comic Standing” on May 22. Those last two certainly aren’t script dependent like “Earl” is, but it’ll still be nice to see some new shows on the air since Big Brother 9 can only take me but so far.

NBC has also some new shows starting up and I’m not terribly sure how excited to be at this point. “Fear Itself” will not be a Churchill series but rather a “horror and mystery anthology” starting May 29. Then there is “Celebrity Circus” which sends “celebs”, more likely quasi-celebs, to the circus and starts on June 11. Lastly you can expect “The Baby Borrrowers” on June 25 which sounds like it’ll be ripe with those hilarious children abduction stories. Or maybe not. Who knows.

“My Name Is Earl” cast interviews about their return:

More “My Name Is Earl” videos available here on NBC.com.