HEADED FOR 12TH SEASON : NBC RENEWS ‘SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’

Although assailed by some critics as a program whose time has come and gone, NBC’s satirical late-night “Saturday Night Live” will be back next fall for its 12th season, the network said Wednesday.

The announcement raised to 15 the number of entertainment programs given an early renewal by NBC, which won last season’s prime-time ratings race for the first time in 31 years. The network plans to make public its complete lineup for next season next Thursday. .

No decision has been made yet whether there will be cast or staff changes at “Saturday Night Live,” an NBC spokesman said, although Lorne Michaels, who helped create the program in 1975 and was its first executive producer, will be back in that post next fall.

Michaels returned to the show last season after working for several years in film production.

The program, which started its 11th season on Nov. 9, has three more original shows to air--on Saturday, May 10 and May 17--before going into reruns. No date has been set for its return next fall.

The show’s future appeared in doubt earlier this year, when NBC Entertainment president Brandon Tartikoff and NBC board chairman Grant Tinker, in various press conferences, seemed hesitant when asked if the show would return next fall.

Tartikoff, in a prepared statement, reiterated what he told reporters last month--that the show has been in a “re-building” period in its 11th season. He noted Wednesday that an all-new cast had been introduced last fall on “Saturday Night Live” and “is now beginning to jell as well as communicate with the audience.”

And, he said, “viewing levels are comparable to last year, and the promise of a bigger and better season in 1986-87 is definitely there with Lorne Michaels continuing at the helm.”

Other series that NBC says will be back next fall include Steven Spielberg’s “Amazing Stories,” which had a two-season commitment even before its premiere last fall; the megahit “The Cosby Show” and “Family Ties,” which follows “Cosby” on Thursday nights, and the new hit, “The Golden Girls.”

NBC also has renewed “Miami Vice,” “Night Court,” “Cheers,” “St. Elsewhere,” “Highway to Heaven,” “Hunter,” “227,” “Hill Street Blues,” “Gimme a Break,” and “Facts of Life,” which in starting its eighth season next fall will be NBC’s oldest current series.

In addition, NBC says that “1986”--its re-tooled version of NBC News’ “American Almanac” that had a six-show tryout last season--will be on its prime-time schedule next season, although no date for its premiere is set yet.