CBS Trains Its Eye on the Young : Television: The struggling network sweeps away much of its older-skewing schedule and adds 11 new series for fall.

CBS, under siege with low ratings, older-skewing shows rejected by sponsors and the loss of one-fifth of its audience households this season, swept house with a vengeance Wednesday in announcing its 1995-96 prime-time schedule.

With added headaches from dropping Connie Chung as Dan Rather’s evening news co-anchor, plus a 68% nose-dive in earnings in the year’s first quarter and rumors that CBS is up for sale, the network turned its prime-time schedule on its ear in hopes of getting some momentum for a rebound.

The newsmagazine “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung” was one of the series canceled. But Rather’s newsmagazine, “48 Hours,” was renewed.

As CBS announced 11 new series--more than the 10 it renewed along with two weekly movies--the operative word of the new schedule is young . In fact, CBS virtually shouted that fact in the press release announcing the lineup, with its top headline noting that the network would present a “young, bold, broad-reaching schedule.”

After a season in which it finished third in the ratings behind ABC and NBC and ranked last, even behind Fox, with the advertiser-desired 18-to-49-year-old audience, CBS put its money on six new comedies and five new dramas in the coming season.

Unfortunately, some shows that brought CBS honor in the past got the short end. “Northern Exposure” was dropped after CBS virtually assured its death by moving it from its solid Monday slot to Wednesdays this season. Also dropped was “Under Suspicion,” a fine, moody drama about a woman cop.

In addition, “Under One Roof,” a promising new drama about an African American family, did not make the fall schedule. And “Rescue 911,” a successful Tuesday night reality series that debuted in 1989, will not be back.

CBS also officially confirmed that “Murder, She Wrote,” which draws an older audience but was a huge hit in total households for more than a decade on Sundays following “60 Minutes,” will move to Thursdays, against NBC’s strongest night.

“60 Minutes,” however, will return in its usual 7 p.m. Sunday slot on CBS, beginning its 28th season. But, instead of being followed at 8 by “Murder, She Wrote,” it now will lead into Cybill Shepherd’s new comedy, “Cybill,” which has debuted to critical praise.

Among the names that CBS is counting on to change its fortunes in new shows are:

Andrew (Dice) Clay, known for his foul-mouthed stand-up comedy but now, as simply Andrew Clay, star of the new sitcom “Bless This House”; talk-show host Montel Williams, who plays a teacher in the new drama “Matt Waters”; David Letterman’s attempt as a sitcom producer, “Bonnie”; and Mariel Hemingway and Lauren Hutton in a new drama, “Central Park West,” from Darren Star, creator of “Melrose Place” and “Beverly Hills, 90210.”

Typical of CBS’ change is its virtual lack of dependence--this fall, at least--on the two women producers who were so responsible for its rise to first place in the ratings in the three previous seasons, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Diane English. Both had landed multi-series deals with the network.

There are no series from Bloodworth-Thomason, formerly represented by such comedies as “Designing Women,” “Hearts Afire,” “Evening Shade” and “Women of the House.” And English’s single remaining entry is “Murphy Brown”; two of her newer sitcoms, “Love & War” and “Double Rush,” have been axed by CBS.

Other CBS series from this season that did not make the new fall lineup include “The Boys Are Back,” the revival of “Burke’s Law,” “Christy,” “Daddy’s Girls,” Dick Van Dyke’s “Diagnosis Murder,” “Due South,” “The Five Mrs. Buchanans,” “The George Wendt Show,” “The Office” and “The Wright Verdicts.”

Among CBS’ new comedies, “Bless This House” presents Clay as a postal worker and Cathy Moriarty as a cashier in a working-class show in which they have two children but have “perfected the art of the Fight.” In “Bonnie,” scripted and improvisational comedy are combined, with Bonnie Hunt starring as a Chicago TV reporter.

Other new CBS comedies:

* “Almost Perfect,” about “two successful overachievers”--he’s a district attorney, she’s a TV producer--who are “trying to find time for romance.”

* “Can’t Hurry Love,” about “friendship, love and dating in the ‘90s,” and featuring Nancy McKeon, Mariska Hargitay and Louis Mandylor.

* “Dweebs,” with Peter Scolari and Corey Feldman in a tale of “computer dweebs more comfortable in cyberspace than with real life.”

* “If Not for You,” with Elizabeth McGovern and Hank Azari as “two young lovers in love with the wrong people.”

Among the new dramas, “Matt Waters” presents Williams as a “hard-boiled, 20-year Navy veteran” who teaches science in “the battlefields of a contemporary . . . high school.”

And “Central Park West” is an ensemble show about “a cross-section of young New Yorkers.” CBS hopes that young viewers will switch from Star’s Fox drama, “Beverly Hills, 90210,” which airs at 8 p.m. Wednesdays, to “Central Park West,” set for 9 p.m. on the same night.

Other new CBS dramas:

* “The Client,” drawn from John Grisham’s novel and starring Jo-Beth Williams as an attorney who is a recovering alcoholic, has lost her children in a custody battle and now practices family law.

* “Courthouse,” headlining Patricia Wettig (“thirtysomething”) as a judge and Robin Givens as a public defender in a tale about the legal types at “an old big-city courthouse.”

* “American Gothic,” about a rural Southern town “twisted out of shape by a demonic force” and starring Gary Cole (“Midnight Caller”) as a sheriff “who rules without law or conscience.”

Acknowledging CBS’ new direction, the network’s entertainment president, Peter Tortorici, said: “Yes, we want and need younger viewers to come to CBS, and our new programs go right at that. We also believe that older viewers who have been so loyal to us are of enormous value and should be welcome as well. We’ve targeted our development to a lower median age--our shows are more urban [and] contemporary.”

Here is CBS’ fall lineup:

Monday: “The Nanny,” “Can’t Hurry Love,” “Murphy Brown,” “If Not for You,” “Chicago Hope.”

Tuesday: “Matt Waters,” “CBS Tuesday Movie.”

Wednesday: “Bless This House,” “Dave’s World,” “Central Park West,” “Courthouse.”

Thursday: “Murder, She Wrote,” “The Client,” “48 Hours.”

Friday: “Dweebs,” “Bonnie,” “Picket Fences,” “American Gothic.”

Saturday: “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” “Touched by an Angel,” “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

Sunday: “60 Minutes,” “Cybill,” “Almost Perfect,” “CBS Sunday Movie.”