New Entertainment Chief Named by Sagging NBC : Television: Donald Ohlmeyer takes over segment of network whose prime-time schedule was once invincible.

General Electric Co. on Wednesday tapped independent television producer Donald W. Ohlmeyer Jr. to revitalize its financially troubled NBC network and to breathe new life into NBC’s sagging lineup of entertainment programs.

The naming of Ohlmeyer to the newly created post of president, NBC West Coast, comes in response to mounting problems at the once-dominant network. In recent months, NBC has suffered through the embarrassing loss of late-night talk show host David Letterman to CBS and the near-collapse of its once invincible prime-time schedule.

NBC is looking for Ohlmeyer to come up with innovative ways to redesign the prime-time schedule during an era of cost restrictions and growing competition from cable and other media that has affected all the major networks.

Ohlmeyer, a former executive at NBC and ABC, was appointed to oversee NBC Entertainment and NBC Productions. He has enjoyed broad success as a producer of TV movies, series and sporting events, including the Olympics.

In a rare act of contrition, NBC executives conceded Wednesday that they erred last year by dropping such aging but popular shows as “Matlock,” “In the Heat of the Night” and “The Golden Girls” as part of a gambit to capture the younger audience that advertisers crave.

NBC “tried to go too narrow, too young, too fast, and they hurt themselves by giving up those shows,” said Ohlmeyer, who was already ensconced at NBC’s offices in Burbank when the announcement was made. “Those things hurt. . . . Now we’re going to have to retool.”

Already racked by years of staff cutbacks and retrenchment in news and sports, NBC’s free-fall into third place in the prime-time ratings after a remarkable seven-year winning streak has rattled the nerves of once-confident executives and depressed morale.

Warren Littlefield, president of NBC Entertainment and the chief architect of the network’s prime-time schedule, will now report to Ohlmeyer instead of NBC President Robert C. Wright. John Agoglia, president of NBC Productions, will also report to Ohlmeyer.

Providing a glimpse of the often harsh realities of network television, Wright did not inform Littlefield about Ohlmeyer’s appointment until Tuesday night. Indeed, Littlefield told callers Tuesday afternoon that the rumors were “ridiculous.”

Wright, who championed NBC’s failed strategy to focus on a younger audience, held himself responsible for the programming miscalculations that have dragged down the network.

“We were more ambitious than our development allowed us to be,” he said. “We now have to back up, count our position and build a broader view. I take responsibility for that.”

Wright also said that Ohlmeyer will be more than chief programmer. “He’s going to have a broader role, helping us with (ad) sales and strategy with affiliates. He doesn’t fall into the same compartment as other people who have headed up West Coast operations in the past.”

Ohlmeyer, 48, gained early fame as a red-hot sports producer with a feel for showmanship. Nevertheless he has had limited experience in entertainment programming, having produced only a handful of TV movies and series in recent years. He left NBC in 1982 to form Ohlmeyer Communications Co., a producer of sports shows, with backing from Nabisco.

NBC’s ratings are down 11% from last year this season and the network overall is ranked third.

Where ratings go in network television, profits quickly follow. As recently as 1989, the NBC Television Network and the seven TV stations it owned had a combined operating profit of $603 million. But as NBC’s prime-time position eroded, profits in 1991 slipped to $209 million and the network division actually lost an estimated $70 million.

Ohlmeyer comes to NBC with an usual advantage: He is a longtime golfing companion of GE Chairman John F. Welch Jr. and had been favored by Welch as a replacement for NBC News President Michael Gartner, even though Ohlmeyer had no previous news experience.