On the heels of CBS' announcement that it's picked up Mark Burnett's "Rock Star," a competing studio says it's developing its own project in which a well-established band searches for a new singer.

Yeah, we know. Big shock there. It appears, though, that the two projects may have actually evolved independent of one another -- which, in the idea-filching world of reality TV, is a bit of a surprise.

The tentatively titled "Rock Star," produced by "Survivor" mastermind Burnett, will embark on a global search to find a new singer for INXS, the former chart-topping Aussies who have been without a permanent frontman since Michael Hutchence's death in 1997. CBS announced Thursday (June 24) that it had won the bidding for the show.

Now, Fox Television Studios, producer of "The Shield" and "Temptation Island," among other shows, says it's developing a series with R&B group TLC. The Los Angeles Times reports that the studio -- which provides programming for the FOX network but operates independently -- had been in discussions with TLC before Burnett brought "Rock Star" to networks.

TLC member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes died in a car crash in April 2002. Later that year, the group released an album, "3D," that was recorded prior to Lopes' death, but hasn't recorded an album since.

The timing of the TLC project, which hasn't been offered to networks yet, and "Rock Star" appears to be more coincidental than anything. Still, that hasn't stopped people involved with both from a little bit of sniping.

"It just makes me laugh," Burnett tells the Times. "All I can do is do good work." Counters an executive close to the TLC project: "I don't think anyone cares about INXS anymore." (Meanwhile, media reports from Down Under and the U.S. say Australia's Nine Network claimed it pitched an INXS project to the band prior to Burnett. The matter was apparently resolved by Burnett granting rights to "Rock Star" to Nine.)

Increasingly, though, networks are launching similar unscripted projects with the intent of stealing a competitor's thunder. The success of "The Apprentice" on NBC spawned ABC's "Benefactor" and FOX's "Billionaire"; FOX also rushed a boxing series called "The Next Great Champ" into production, with the intent of beating NBC's Burnett-produced "Contender" onto the air. ("Rock Star" itself seems patterned at least in part after "American Idol.")

Friday's Variety also reports that FOX is developing a show called "Trading Spouses" that sounds awfully similar to ABC's "Wife Swap," which was well-received at May's upfronts. FOX's version would be on the air by late summer, ahead of "Wife Swap's" scheduled September debut.