MTV to Add New Shows, Boost Live Programming : Television: The network aims to broaden coverage in pop culture and increase viewer interaction.

In an attempt to keep pace with its youthful audience, MTV plans to introduce several new series in the coming months--including a “reality” show and a sports show--and will go live from 4 to 7 p.m. every day beginning this spring, network creative director Judy McGrath said Thursday.

Although music videos will remain the bulk of MTV’s programming, McGrath said in an interview: “We have to keep changing our programming and get on to what’s happening, because that’s what our audience expects us to do. December was one of our most-watched months because we had great videos from Michael Jackson, U2 and others. But there are times when there isn’t so much vitality among the new videos. We’re interested in new franchises--and we think pop culture is part of our turf.”

Among the series MTV plans to introduce:

* “MTV Sports,” a weekly sports series that will feature profiles of professional athletes, news about various sports and offbeat features such as “rock and jock” events with musicians and athletes. It begins Jan. 25.

* “Like We Care,” a daily half-hour magazine show for the “twentysomething” part of the audience. It premieres in February.

* “Lip Service,” a weekly lip-syncing contest series, starting Feb. 22.

* An untitled concert series featuring emerging new bands.

* “The Real World,” a variation on PBS’ famed “An American Family” series, in which six young people will share their lives with the music-channel audience. It is due in April. In a recent newspaper advertisement, the producers said they were “desperately seeking humans to share their lives with several million TV viewers--no freaks or actors.” The six young people chosen--three men and three women--will share a 3,000-square-foot loft. In exchange for MTV paying the rent, their daily lives will be videotaped and edited into a weekly program.

Meanwhile, beginning in February, “MTV’s Most Wanted,” the channel’s viewer-request show, will go live from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. EST. By April, McGrath said, MTV plans to expand the live block to the 4-7 p.m. period, under the tentative umbrella title of “Hangin’ with MTV.”

Many MTV viewers probably think that the music channel already is largely programmed live. But with the exception of special-events programming, most of the shows--even the viewer call-ins for videos--are videotaped at least several hours before airing.

The move is designed in part to increase viewers’ interaction with the music channel--by phone, fax and opinion polls. “Going live will allow us to get a viewer’s call and play the requested video right away,” McGrath said.

The format also will allow MTV to have bands “drop by” the studio to perform and be interviewed live during the afternoon.

Like the morning news shows on broadcast TV, “Hangin’ with MTV” will be tape-delayed on the West Coast.

In other cable-TV news:

* Showtime said Thursday that it plans to bolster its “FamilyHour” anthology series with three new animated components this year: “A Bunch of Munsch,” a series based on the works of children’s author Robert Munsch and illustrator Michael Martchenko; “American Legends,” stories about life in the United States with narration by celebrities such as Danny Glover, Anjelica Huston and Nicolas Cage, and “Shelley Duvall’s Bedtime Stories,” with narration by such performers as Dudley Moore and Bette Midler.

* HBO said Wednesday that it has signed Garry Shandling, the former star of Showtime’s “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” to star in a comedy series, in which he will portray a character other than himself for the first time. As the title character in “The Larry Sanders Show,” he’ll portray a late-night talk-show host. Thirteen half-hour episodes will begin airing in June.

* HBO said its TV movie projects include a dramatization of the Wall Street book “Barbarians at the Gate,” starring James Garner in a script written by Larry Gelbart; the spy thriller “Blue Ice,” with Michael Caine, and “Running Mates,” with Diane Keaton playing a writer who becomes engaged to a man running for the presidency.