SHOOTING STARS: ‘Ultimate Fighter’ begins production on 12th season

You have to be tough to deal with Las Vegas’ triple-digit summers.

That goes double for the 28 contenders — to say nothing of the two coaches — battling it out on Spike’s “The Ultimate Fighter,” which began shooting its 12th season over the weekend.

“It’s always a little bit challenging in the summer heat,” acknowledges co-executive producer Brian Diamond, Spike’s senior vice president of sports and specials.

But that’s what happens when you call Las Vegas home — as “The Ultimate Fighter” has done since the show began, reflecting UFC’s increasing popularity, Diamond says.

“The sport has really grown exponentially,” he notes. “I don’t necessarily want to call anything bulletproof — but it just keeps growing.”

And Diamond expects the new season to reflect that.

The up-and-coming lightweights competing for “The Ultimate Fighter” title — and the six-figure UFC contract that comes with it — hail from around the globe: Armenia to Vietnam, Hawaii to Canada and Costa Rica (the latter represented by one Canadian-Costa Rican fighter).

The rivalry between coaches should be just as intense, Diamond suggests, with UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre and top contender Josh Koscheck leading the competing teams. (St-Pierre and Koscheck also will meet inside the Octagon in a pay-per-view title fight.)

“Josh speaks his mind,” Diamond says, “so there will be verbal pyrotechnics at the very least.”

As always, stay tuned to Shooting Stars for more details of “The Ultimate Fighter’s” six-week shoot.

‘Only’ in Vegas: Larry the Cable Guy has performed here plenty of times.

This week’s Vegas visit, however, finds him fronting a new History series, “Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy” (a working title), a cross-country trek during which he’ll read “bits of real history while immersing himself in new and different lifestyles, jobs and hobbies that celebrate the American experience.” (At least that’s how the History press release describes it.)

The show’s three Las Vegas segments include a behind-the-scenes look at Bellagio’s dancing fountains and a stop along Fremont Street. The 15-minute Las Vegas segments will turn up sometime in the fall.

Skechers shuffle: Most made-in-Vegas productions come here for the glitz ’n’ glamour.

Not Skechers: The shoe company’s eight-day Southern Nevada shoot, which is scheduled to wrap this week, is showcasing its footwear in action at venues from Henderson’s Discovery Park to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area to downtown Las Vegas.

“They’re not doing the typical Vegas thing,” location manager Nicholas Savalas says of the commercial, expected to debut later this year.

Reality check: The Canadian reality series “Deuces Wild,” which focuses on clothing designer and manufacturer Jason Dussault and his wife, model-turned-entrepreneur Mashiah Vaughn, is scheduled to return to Las Vegas for a three-day shoot this week.

The 13-episode series began production in January and will debut in September, according to Internet reports. Among the series highlights, as Vaughn told the Vancouver Sun newspaper: “one with Criss Angel hitting on me.”

Speaking of Angel, his A&E series “Mindfreak” was scheduled to wrap over the weekend. But there’s still plenty of unscripted TV on this week’s production schedule, from History’s “Pawn Stars” to truTV’s “Rehab: Party at the Hard Rock Pool,” Fox’s “Cops” and E!’s Holly Madison series, “Holly’s World.”

Casting about: Just a reminder that auditions for “Use Your Noodle,” a locally produced pilot for a kids’ cooking show, will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 19, at Vegas City Artz, 6700 W. Charleston Blvd., Suite G. Producers are looking for about a dozen cast members, ages 6-9 to 30-55. Longtime Las Vegan Rose Heeter will cast and direct the project. For more information on the casting call — or the project — e-mail Heeter at GetCastinVegas@aol.com or telephone 594-4198.