Hoping to carry some summertime success into the fall, NBC is readying another round of "Last Comic Standing" for its fall schedule.

Additionally, the Mark Burnett-produced boxing series "The Contender" is moving up from January to November -- about the same time that FOX's similar fist-fest, "The Next Great Champ," is set to premiere.

"Last Comic," which ends its summer run Aug. 12, will return to the lineup Tuesday, Aug. 31, two days after the Summer Olympics conclude. It will hold the 8 p.m. ET Tuesday spot until "The Contender" opens in November. The next "Average Joe" (or "Average Jane"), which was originally scheduled for 8 p.m. Tuesdays, will go to the bench and be used as a fill-in show where it's needed.

"'Last Comic' is truly one of the summer's success stories, and it resonates because it provides competition, fresh faces and laugh-out-loud comedy," says Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment. "We decided that rather than wait until next summer, this hot show has proven popular enough to merit a prime spot in our fall lineup."

The series is NBC's top-rated original show this summer, drawing 8 million-plus viewers a week and strong ratings in the network's benchmark demographic of adults 18-49.

With "The Contender," NBC chief Jeff Zucker says the thinking was to give the show some time to build an audience before "American Idol" returns to FOX in January. "We think we finally have something to compete with 'Idol,' but obviously they're the incumbent ... [and] an incredibly powerful show," Zucker told reporters Saturday (July 10) at the TV Critics Association summer press tour.

Zucker didn't mention that moving "The Contender," which will also feature Sylvester Stallone and former champ Sugar Ray Leonard, up will also prevent FOX from getting much of a head start with "The Next Great Champ," a boxing competition fronted by multi-time champion Oscar de la Hoya.

He does, however, think that the burgeoning trend of networks piggybacking on a rival's reality-show premise in an effort to steal their thunder "is bad for all of us," and even uses a little Don King-style bravado to make his point.

"FOX used to be an innovator, now they're an imitator," Zucker says. "When you rush shows on [the air], you see what happens with them."