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ABC Looks to Build Summer 'Empire'
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Hoping to capitalize on its newfound ratings health, ABC is planning its most ambitious summer schedule in several years, with the limited-run drama "Empire" and four new unscripted series set to go in June and July.
The network will also unspool new episodes of "Wife Swap," bring "Bambi" to network television and shift a couple of its current shows to different time periods during the offseason. The strategy represents a fairly sizable shift from recent summers, when ABC has been content to sprinkle in a documentary series or two with repeats of its regular programming.

The summer season will kick off at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday, June 1 with the new show "Dancing with the Stars." Based on the BBC hit "Strictly Come Dancing," the six-part series will pair celebrities with professional hoofers in a ballroom-dance competition, with viewers voting on who stays and who goes. It will be bookended by repeats of "Supernanny" and "Lost," which are getting new timeslots for the summer.

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Another unscripted show, "The Scholar," will premiere Monday, June 6. The competition will have 10 high-school seniors for whom the cost of college is out of reach compete for a full ride to a university -- a prize worth up to $250,000. It will be followed by a Monday movie night.
On June 28, the long-in-development limited series "Empire" will debut. Set in Rome circa 44 B.C., the six-hour series will tell the story of Octavius (Santiago Cabrera), the nephew of Julius Caesar who flees the city with gladiator Tyrannus (Jonathan Cake, "The American Embassy" wink following Caesar's death, only to return with an army to battle Marc Antony (Vincent Regan, "Troy" wink and his legions.

The network is planning to use the NBA Finals, scheduled to begin June 9, for heavy promotion of "Empire."

In July, ABC will offer up new episodes of "Wife Swap" and two more unscripted shows, the self-explanatory "Brat Camp" and "Welcome to the Neighborhood," in which residents of a cul-de-sac get to choose one of seven families to become their new neighbors.