SHORT TAKES : Pauley New Show Name a Blank

Less than a month before Jane Pauley’s prime-time program premieres on NBC, she still doesn’t know what to call it.

“You know, my son was almost 4 years old before he got a name,” she says in TV Guide’s Saturday issue. “I had a cat that was a year old before I gave him a name.”

She knows what she doesn’t want to call it--a newsmagazine.

“It’s a news variety show,” said Pauley, who quit the “Today” show earlier this year.

An NBC prime-time news program by any name is a risky venture. The new show, premiering July 11, follows a host of short-lived newsmagazines.

There was “Prime Time Sunday,” which became “Prime Time Saturday” before it was canceled, “NBC Magazine,” “Monitor,” “Summer Sunday U.S.A.,” which lasted two months, and the most recent failure, “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”

Pauley has a commitment from the network for five shows, which will run every two weeks through Sept. 5.