NBC Subs ‘Matlock’ for ‘Real Life’ and ‘Expose’

With the November ratings sweeps fast approaching, NBC moved Friday to shore up its faltering prime-time lineup by substituting the legal drama “Matlock” for its low-rated news series, “Real Life With Jane Pauley” and “Expose.”

“Matlock,” a 5-year-old series that stars Andy Griffith, will be broadcast Fridays at 8 p.m. beginning next week, but “Real Life” and “Expose” will have one more airing together on Nov. 1. After that, they will be sent back to the drawing board for combining into a single, hourlong show, NBC said.

“Our plan is to take the best elements of ‘Real Life’ and ‘Expose’--from human-interest stories to investigative journalism to newsmaker interviews--and yet to allow for more flexibility, particularly during major breaking news,” NBC News President Michael Gartner said. “Our belief is that in their current half-hour formats, these programs are somewhat constricted and too narrowly defined.”

The new program has been given a 52-week commitment from the network and will debut next March 6, NBC said. Pauley will be co-anchor of the new hour-long show, with someone else to be named later. The “Expose” investigative team of Brian Ross and Ira Silverman will contribute reports to the program.

“NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw, who has anchored “Expose,” will be busy in 1992 with a series of prime-time programs, “Brokaw Reports,” about the “issues and challenges” facing the country during the election year.

“Real Life” and “Expose” have been plagued by low ratings since their debut last January. Some NBC officials thought that the pairing of the two half-hour shows had hurt both.

“Nobody does half-hour magazine shows,” said Steve Friedman, who is executive producer of “NBC Nightly News” and was recently named executive in charge on the Pauley program. “We think we have a lot of good elements between the two shows, we have another yearlong commitment from the network, and there’s no reason to believe that we can’t put on a new show that will be a prime-time player.”

NBC said that it will be making additional changes in its prime-time schedule next week.