NBC Returns Country Music to Prime Time : Television: Dick Clark’s ‘Hot Country Nights’ will join the Sunday night lineup starting Nov. 24. Low-rated sitcoms ‘Man of the People’ and ‘Pacific Station’ are moving to new time slots.

Having struck out with two stars from former hit series, James Garner and Robert Guillaume, NBC said Tuesday it will turn to country music to take over its 8-9 p.m. time slot Sunday nights beginning Nov. 24.

“Hot Country Nights” will feature comedy and musical performances by such popular country artists as Dwight Yoakam, Alabama, Vince Gill, Kathy Mattea, K.T. Oslin, Ricky Van Shelton and Travis Tritt. Dick Clark will serve as executive producer.

“Man of the People,” starring Garner as a crooked city councilman, and “Pacific Station,” with Guillaume as a gruff Venice Beach cop, will vacate Sunday nights after Oct. 26--just before the November sweeps get under way.

Despite being among the season’s lowest-rated programs, they will continue in production and return to NBC in December in new time periods, the network said.

Replacing them during the first three weeks of November will be special episodes of “Unsolved Mysteries,” “Night Court” and the network TV debut of “Back to the Future III.”

NBC also said Tuesday that two Friday-night comedy series, the new “Flesh ‘N Blood” and “Dear John,” will flip time periods, with “Flesh ‘N Blood” jumping up to 9 p.m. and “Dear John” moving to 9:30 p.m.

Defending ratings champion NBC, running second so far this season, had made other prime-time adjustments last Friday, shelving “Real Life With Jane Pauley” and “Expose” and inserting “Matlock” on Fridays at 8 p.m., beginning this week.

In explaining the decision to schedule “Hot Country Nights”--the first prime-time network music series since Dolly Parton’s variety show in the 1987-88 season--NBC Entertainment President Warren Littlefield cited “the explosion in popularity of country music, especially among younger audiences.”