`CLOSER' CAN'T QUITE MAKE SALE.

Byline: Keith Marder Daily News Television Writer

If you've watched the Olympics, chances are you've heard about ``The Closer.''

The new CBS series starring Tom Selleck seems to be getting more mentions during the network's sub-par coverage of the Winter Games than ``Super G,'' the phrase that keeps rolling off announcers' lips.

``The Closer,'' which premieres at 9 tonight, is also subpar. It is a formulaic, fairly soulless, star-driven vehicle that underwhelms.

Selleck, handsome as ever, plays the title character, a Denver advertising legend named Jack McLaren. He tries to get the Coast Guard account because ``if he can create a little buzz, they can get invited to the next war.'' He doesn't get the account because he beats the president in golf and is fired.

The rest of the cast includes Ed Asner, who cantankerously plays creative director Carl ``Dobbs'' Dobson, Penelope Ann Miller as preppy and condescending yet vulnerable Erica Hewitt, David Krumholtz as horny nebbish Bruno Verma, Suzy Nakamura as know-it-all assistant Beverly Andolini and Hedy Burress as McLaren's free-spirit daughter Alex.

The network is banking that Selleck is likable enough to draw an audience. His charm is unquestionable, and his timing is every bit as good as it was during a recurring role on ``Friends.''

But the characters are all people you have seen before. The premise is very similar to NBC's ``Fired Up.''

There are a few laughs in the pilot but also a few groans.

McLaren has a reputation as an icy, no-feeling guy. But after a few turns of events in the pilot - his wife won't take him back, he loses his job and starts to care for his co-workers, and his daughter moves in with him rather than join a professional snowboarding tour in Europe - he softens as if he were dunked in Downey.

That is the show's main hope, that this character evolves - not instantly changes - into a well-rounded person and continues to struggle between what is right and the way his instincts draw him.

Grade: C