FALL LINEUPS: NBC, WB FIND NEW SLOTS FOR KEY SHOWS

By Brian Lowry

May 13, 2003 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

NEW YORK —

NBC has significantly complicated ABC’s efforts to claw out of the ratings cellar by moving the established crime hit “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” to Tuesdays this fall, likely putting it directly opposite one of ABC’s few successful dramas, “NYPD Blue.”

That announcement came Monday as NBC used the Metropolitan Opera House as a backdrop to unveil a prime-time schedule with six new series -- split evenly among sitcoms and dramas -- in addition to confirming a two-year extension keeping its top-rated drama, “ER,” on into 2006.

Both ABC and the WB network present their revised schedules today for media buyers here as part of the annual “upfront” market, a series of high-octane presentations that precede the sale of billions in ad time. (The WB’s lineup has already largely been leaked to the media.)

With shows like “Karen Sisco,” “I’m With Her” and “Hope and Faith,” ABC is clearly hoping crime dramas and broad comedies can lift the network out of its ratings doldrums, while the WB network will break up Tuesday, its most successful night -- relocating the hit “Smallville” -- in an effort to replace the long-running “Dawson’s Creek” and bolster its sluggish Wednesday performance.

The network is hoping “Smallville” can transfer its success on Tuesdays to the new night, where it will be followed by the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” spinoff “Angel.” With “Buffy” ending this month, James Marsters, that show’s popular co-star, will join “Angel” this fall.

As for Tuesday, “Gilmore Girls” will be joined by “Fearless,” a drama starring Rachael Leigh Cook (“She’s All That”) as a young woman incapable of feeling fear who is recruited to join the FBI. The series comes from blockbuster film producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who is already responsible for four CBS series, including both versions of “CSI,” “Without a Trace” and “The Amazing Race.”

The WB will also update the Tarzan mythology with “Tarzan and Jane” and add to its trio of comedies featuring African American leads, including a variety show called “Steve Harvey’s Big Time,” which will compete with “Friends” on Thursdays.

Two other new sitcoms will be paired with “Reba” and “Grounded for Life” on Fridays, departing from the frequent practice of blocking off programs perceived to appeal to minorities. They are “Like Family,” with Holly Robinson Peete, about a woman and her teenager who move in with her sister; and “All About the Andersons,” about an unemployed actor who moves in with his parents. It stars Anthony Anderson and John Amos as his father.

The last new comedy, “Run of the House,” is about a teen being raised by her older siblings, similar to the WB’s Amanda Bynes sitcom “What I Like About You,” which will join “House” on Thursday nights.

Gone from the WB schedule are the comedies “Do Over,” “Family Affair” and “Greetings From Tucson,” all introduced this season, as well as the longer-running “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” “Off Centre” and “Black Sash.”

NBC dropped what amounts to a small scheduling bombshell by shifting the second “Law & Order” away from Friday nights -- and a time period it has dominated -- to replace the Tuesday edition of “Dateline NBC,” which had seen its ratings diminish this year. As expected, that leaves only two weekly editions of the newsmagazine, on Friday and Sunday nights.

“Boomtown,” the acclaimed first-year police drama set in Los Angeles, will replace “SVU” on Fridays, which could open the door for other networks to more aggressively counter-program that night, with one rival network executive saying that NBC was “throwing Fridays up for grabs.”

“Fixing Tuesday night was our biggest priority,” said NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker during a conference call Monday, calling “SVU” “the strongest drama we have that we could move.”

With “Boomtown” moving, “The Lyon’s Den,” starring Rob Lowe as a member of a Washington, D.C., law firm, goes against another legal drama, ABC’s “The Practice,” on Sundays at 10 p.m.

Another new NBC program is “Coupling,” a comedy about sex-crazed singles, which moves in behind “Will & Grace,” sending “Good Morning, Miami” to Tuesdays after “Frasier,” heading into what Zucker said is “in all likelihood” its final year.

Two new sitcoms also open that night: “Happy Family,” starring John Larroquette and Christine Baranski; and “Whoopi,” starring Whoopi Goldberg as a diva turned hotel manager.

“Miss Match,” meanwhile, stars Alicia Silverstone as a divorce lawyer who becomes a professional matchmaker, with Ryan O’Neal playing her father. And “Las Vegas” brings James Caan to television as a casino security chief.

“Crossing Jordan” was left off Monday night, in part due to star Jill Hennessy’s pregnancy. The show is slated to return later in the season.

Notably, all six of the WB’s new programs are produced by a subsidiary of its parent studio, with five coming from Warner Bros. Television and the Harvey project produced through Tele- pictures, the unit responsible for such alternative fare as “The Bachelor.” (The network is also part-owned by Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times.)

Four of NBC’s six new entries at least partially fall under the auspices of NBC Studios, the network’s production arm.

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Prime-time schedules

New shows are in bold; new time periods for existing shows are in italic.

NBC’s fall lineup

Sunday: “Dateline NBC,” “American Dreams,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “The Lyon’s Den”

Monday: “Fear Factor,” “Las Vegas,” “Third Watch”

Tuesday: “Whoopi,” “Happy Family,” “Frasier,” “Good Morning, Miami,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”

Wednesday: “Ed,” “The West Wing,” “Law & Order”

Thursday: “Friends,” “Scrubs,” “Will & Grace,” “Coupling,” “ER”

Friday: “Miss Match,” “Dateline NBC,” “Boomtown”

Saturday: movie