SMALL SCREEN ZUCKER PUTS A GLOSS ON NBC'S WOES.

Byline: David Kronke

Jeff Zucker, whose title has recently become a little longer - he's now president of NBC Entertainment, News and Cable Group - took journalists attending the TCA tour on their semiannual trip through Zuckerland.

It's a place where CBS' 3 percent drop-off this season in viewers ages 18 to 49 and NBC's 9 percent drop-off can, with deft tweaking, be described as ``essentially the same.'' Where winning the 18-49 demographic by a fraction of a ratings point even though another network averages 5 million more total viewers is considered a victory. Where submarining shows like ``Tracy Morgan'' and ``Miss Match'' can be described as ``steady'' or ``unclear'' and ``Boomtown'' is forgotten so that it looks like NBC has had only two flops this year.

Where ``The Apprentice'' can be named a Top-15 show and the year's top new show, simply on the basis of one airing - immediately after ``Friends,'' and not in its regularly scheduled time slot. Where the reality series ``Average Joe'' is ``not making fun of anybody'' and ``entirely in keeping with the NBC brand.'' Where introducing no new scripted midseason series during its day of the press tour demonstrates ``the breadth of the company.''

``We're at a time in television where very few of the old rules apply,'' Zucker explained. Apparently.

Zucker explained why NBC values the 18-49 demographic over total viewers, a category in which CBS is dominant. ``The currency of the business is written on 18-49,'' he said. ``Total viewers is not something we even get numbers on in our ratings every day. Advertisers know if you're strong in 18-49, you're going to get the over-50 viewer. They come along for the ride for free.'' Or not, given how far behind the network lags in total viewers.

Despite Zucker's pronouncements, it hasn't been a pretty year for NBC. Of its new series, only its glitzy soap ``Las Vegas'' (which will welcome Paris Hilton as a guest star playing a gold digger during February sweeps) has enjoyed much success; everything else has limped along or worse. Its most highly touted new shows, ``Coupling'' and ``The Lyon's Den,'' were among the first to tank. Zucker blamed the perception of NBC's travails on the fact that ``our two big misses came in incredibly high-profile blocks.''

And, of course, the network will be losing its No. 1 series, ``Friends,'' at the end of the season, along with another reliable performer, ``Frasier.'' Replacing those shows, Zucker allowed, would be ``a daunting task, no question, but we have a number of pieces we're excited about and a lineup that's as strong as any out there.''

NBC should enjoy a significant bounce next season, when it plans to unveil elements of its fall schedule directly following the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, beginning in late August and early September, several weeks before the traditional rollout of the fall season. (This, it turns out, will put some of NBC's new programs in direct competition with the Republican National Convention.)

``It's clear we're in a 52-week-a-year schedule; we're all evolving toward that,'' Zucker said. ``This is an opportunity for us to take advantage of that. I don't want to pronounce the fall premiere week dead, but there's a revolution going on in television and all the old rules are changing.''

More from the Peacock

Zucker made a number of announcements regarding network programming: John McEnroe will host an issues-oriented talk show on CNBC in the spring, joining the previously announced Dennis Miller talk show.

In what will shape up as a battle for the soul of the nation's TV sets - or just savvy counterprogramming - NBC will air a ``Queer Eye for the Straight Guy'' marathon opposite the Super Bowl.

And the network will continue ``Average Joe'' after the Hawaii series concludes by resurrecting one of the participants of the first series in ``Average Joe: Adam Returns.'' (This particular announcement inspired so much derisive laughter that Zucker had to add: ``Seriously.'')

QUOTE OF THE PRESS TOUR

``I think Les Moonves is the most highly overrated person in TV. ... If Les Moonves was a contestant on this show, he would've been fired by the third show. And unlike most people, I like Les Moonves.''

- Donald Trump, left, star/executive producer of NBC's reality contest ``The Apprentice.'' Trump was sitting next to Mark Burnett, creator of CBS' hit ``Survivor,'' when he made this proclamation. Trump also declared, ``Don King ... is a friend of mine yet he is a terrible human being,'' which makes you wonder what Trump would say about people he doesn't like.

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) ZUCKER

(2) Donald Trump