TELEVISION’Champs’ KOs ‘Coach’: ABC will premiere on...

TELEVISION

‘Champs’ KOs ‘Coach’: ABC will premiere on Jan. 9 “Champs,” a new half-hour series from the Steven Spielberg/Jeffrey Katzenberg/David Geffen-owned DreamWorks SKG. The comedy, to air Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m., displacing “Coach,” is created by Emmy-winning writer-producer Gary David Goldberg (“Family Ties”) and stars Timothy Busfield of “thirtysomething” fame. Busfield plays Tom McManus, a husband and father of two whose “second family” consists of his former high school basketball teammates (including former “Sisters” co-star Ed Marinaro and “Saturday Night Live’s” Kevin Nealon). “Coach” will have its last regularly scheduled broadcast on Dec. 19 but will return in a new time period at a later date.

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No ‘News’: CBS’ “New York News,” starring Mary Tyler Moore as a tabloid newspaper editor and Gregory Harrison as her star reporter-columnist, has been canceled, because of low ratings. The series ranked 89th this season out of 108 prime-time shows, and a CBS spokeswoman noted that on its last airing Nov. 30, it averaged only a 9% share of the available audience. The program was up against “Seinfeld,” part of NBC’s powerhouse Thursday lineup. CBS plans to air specials in the time slot in coming weeks, including a repeat of “Murder, She Wrote” this Thursday.

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Applegate Leaves KCBS: Bill Applegate, KCBS-TV Channel 2 general manager, resigned Monday, less than a week after the changing of the guard by new CBS owners Westinghouse. Applegate, who worked at the station as a reporter in the 1970s, had lost an earlier battle against Westinghouse when he sought to keep off his station Group W’s newsmagazine “Day & Date,” which now airs on KCBS weekdays at 3 p.m. John McKay, Channel 2’s director of sales, will be acting general manager.

OPERA

‘Cosi’ Lead Switch: Frederica von Stade, the stellar mezzo-soprano, has withdrawn from the Music Center Opera production of “Cosi fan Tutte” scheduled to open on Feb. 27. The opera company said that Von Stade “has asked to be released . . . for personal reasons” and “has canceled her operatic engagements for the next three months.” Reached at her home in San Francisco, Von Stade explained that she “got over-scheduled,” that she “needs to be at home more” with her daughters, ages 16 and 18. She noted that she is concentrating on concert engagements these days and had no other operas to cancel during the period in question. But she said she hopes to appear in a Music Center gala, as yet unannounced, on Feb. 14, and has been asked to return for the title role of Handel’s “Giulio Cesare” (Julius Caesar) in 1997. Meanwhile, her replacement in “Cosi” will be celebrated Scottish soprano Marie McLaughlin, a rather unorthodox choice for a role normally assigned to lower voices.

MOVIES

Basinger Denies Settlement: A spokeswoman for Kim Basinger on Tuesday denied that the actress had reached a settlement with Main Line Pictures over her refusal to star in “Boxing Helena.” On Monday, Main Line attorney Patricia Glaser told City News Service that Superior Court Judge Judith Chirlin had approved the accord but declined to reveal details. Basinger spokeswoman Sandy Rice said, however, that although a court-proposed deal is on the table, Basinger has not yet agreed to anything and “is prepared to go back to court” if necessary. Meanwhile, Glaser said Tuesday that she had been asked by the other side not to comment further and was honoring that request. In 1991, a jury awarded $8.1 million to Main Line, which claimed it lost up to $10 million in profits because of Basinger’s quitting the project. The case was scheduled for retrial after an appeals court found that the jury had received “prejudicially ambiguous” instructions.

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Telling ‘Keiko’s Story’: Discovery Channel is producing “Keiko’s Story,” a documentary about the orca whale that inspired the hit “Free Willy” movies. The program, scheduled to premiere on the cable channel in early 1997, will detail the attempt to rehabilitate Keiko for possible future release back into the waters off the coast of Iceland. Also included will be exclusive footage of the upcoming massive operation to move Keiko from Mexico City’s Reino Aventura amusement park to a new home in a specially designed 2-million-gallon pool at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Ore. The move, aboard a donated C-130 Hercules aircraft, is scheduled for Jan. 7.

QUICK TAKES

Candace Gingrich, half-sister of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, makes her acting debut Jan. 18 on the hit NBC sitcom “Friends,” playing a minister at a lesbian wedding. Gingrich, a lesbian and former UPS worker, won the role after meeting some cast members at a gay rights fund-raiser. . . . Fox will switch the time slots for two of its Monday night sitcoms starting Dec. 18, when “Ned & Stacey” begins airing at 9 p.m., followed by “Partners” at 9:30 p.m. Fox also announced Tuesday that it has ordered at least six additional episodes of its new Saturday late-night sketch comedy series “Mad TV.” . . . “Islam: Faith and Power,” an eight-part documentary series from the BBC, will air on KCRW-FM (89.9) starting today. The half-hour series will air Wednesdays and Thursdays at 2 p.m. through Dec. 28. . . . More than 500 copies of Emma Thompson’s “The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries” sold out before the author’s arrival at Santa Monica’s Barnes & Noble bookstore Tuesday. Store personnel estimate 600 to 1,000 folks showed up for Thompson’s hourlong book signing.