NETWORK ERRED ON OVER-49S\CBS executive says youth focus bombed.

Byline: Ray Richmond Daily News Television Writer

Six months after effectively proclaiming dead everyone over the age of 49, CBS programming chief Leslie Moonves gave older Americans permission to again watch the network's programs.

The reason: Most of the 11 new shows and eight programs moved to new time slots were geared toward younger audiences and most have flopped, miring CBS deeper in third place in prime time. It had been sold as a leaner, meaner, younger network - in other words, not your parents' CBS.

"We made a lot of mistakes over the past six months," Moonves admitted Saturday during a lunch-time meeting with television writers and critics in Pasadena. He said the primary error was in the way CBS promoted its youth-skewed soap opera flop "Central Park West," a show that was built up to symbolize the new CBS direction.

"The whole promotional campaign for that show of 'We are younger, we are different, we are Fox' was a mistake," Moonves said. "In essence, what we said was, 'If you're 35 or older, get lost,' and that was the wrong message to put out. It went against our network identification."

Indeed, CBS has throughout its history positioned itself as the network with the oldest collective audience. It has thrived with such senior-friendly shows as "Murder, She Wrote" and "60 Minutes."

But with its ad revenues slipping badly due to Madison Avenue's obsession with the adult demographic group ages 18 to 49, CBS's programming department felt the need to reverse course and change its image. That was evident in the wholesale changes made by Peter Tortorici, Moonves' predecessor as head of CBS Entertainment.

But then Tortorici was pushed out the door, and when Moonves joined CBS last summer he inherited a schedule loaded with new product.

Too loaded, he said Saturday.

"We had 19 changes in one bunch, and it was ridiculous," Moonves said. "It will not happen again.

"We did too much too soon. Yes, we want to get younger. But there is a better way to expand our core audience without doing kamikaze things to bring us down."

Moonves - whose new mantra on Saturday was "You don't have to be hip to be young" - promised that CBS will make plenty of changes over the next year. Yet even the new wrinkles will have the stodgy old-style CBS tradition in mind.

For instance, the network has shelled out big bucks to snare Bill Cosby for a new sitcom in the fall. The snake-bit "Central Park West" is being retooled and returned to the schedule in April or May with a couple of oldsters named Gerald McRaney and Raquel Welch in the fold as regulars to balance out the failed youth movement.

And one of the few current shows that aired on CBS during its glory days of the early '90s, "Murphy Brown," will return to CBS next season, Moonves announced Saturday.

CBS likewise is planning to do shows with stars like Marilu Henner and Rhea Perlman, and producers like Steven Bochco (who signed an exclusive CBS deal last year), Tom Fontana (executive producer of "Homicide: Life on the Street"), and Dick Wolf (creator of "Law & Order").

Moonves was even talking Saturday about staying in business with "Murder, She Wrote" star Angela Lansbury, noting that it was been a distant second to NBC this season after being moved to Thursdays at 8 p.m. from its longtime Sunday night perch.

"We're not closing the door on future years or other time periods (for the show)," Moonves said.

The bottom line for Moonves is that older ain't so bad anymore, no matter what advertisers say about the lack of buying power of anyone middle-age or older.

"I think that with the advent of the first Baby Boomers turning 50 years old this year, maybe it's time for Madison Avenue to change (the way it looks at demographics) rather than us having to change," Moonves said.

"This 18-to-49 thing being everything may be too severe."

It's a new tune for Moonves, but he seems to be whistling it in key.