Peacock plans far in advance

When you're in last place, you have to try harder.

Thus NBC didn't wait until May to announce its fall schedule. It announced its fall, winter and spring schedules this week. It's part of what NBC is calling an aggressive 52-week programming schedule, but it still leaves us with mostly reality junk in the summer.

The biggest surprise is that the announcement came so early. Well, that and announcing an "Office" spinoff (about which details are nonexistent) that will premiere after NBC's telecast of the Super Bowl. Or maybe bringing back the ratings-starved "Lipstick Jungle" for a second season.

It will be an even bigger surprise if everything NBC Entertainment co-chairmen Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff announced actually happens the way they announced it.

At any rate, here are the new shows NBC is planning:

• "My Own Worst Enemy" (fall, Mondays, 9 p.m.) is a thriller about a guy (Christian Slater) with two personalities — one mild-mannered, the other a hired killer.

• "Kath & Kim" (fall, Tuesdays, 8:30 p.m.) is a comedy about an unconventional mother and daughter (Molly Shannon and Selma Blair).

• "Knight Rider" (fall, Wednesdays, 7 p.m.) is the continuation of the embarrassingly awful TV movie that revived the '70s series earlier this year.

• "Crusoe" (fall, Fridays, 7 p.m.) is a modern retelling of the classic "Robinson Crusoe."

• "The Philanthropist" (winter, Mondays, 9 p.m.) is a drama about a "renegade billionaire" who becomes the "world's first vigilante philanthropist."

• "Merlin" (winter, Sundays, 7 p.m.) is about young Merlin and the future King Arthur.

• "Kings" (winter, Sundays, 9 p.m.) is a drama about a soldier who rescues a king's son in this updating of the David and Goliath story.

• "America's Toughest Jobs" (summer, Mondays, 8 p.m.) is a reality show in which contestants have to take on difficult jobs.

• "Shark Taggers" (summer, Wednesdays, 7 p.m.) is a reality show about marine biologists.

• "The Listener" (summer, Thursdays, 9 p.m.) is a drama about a paramedic who can read minds.

• "Chopping Block" (summer, Fridays, 7 p.m.) is essentially a rip-off of "Hell's Kitchen" and "Top Chef," with "rock-star chef" Marco Pierre White.

"ER" WILL RETURN, but the upcoming season — its 15th — will be its last.