ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" is relinquishing one of its time slots — but the one-time national phenomenon will still be seen four nights a week.
Beginning in January, "Millionaire's" Tuesday-night edition will shift to Fridays to make room for "The Mole," a so-called reality show that's going to try to be the next "Survivor" (and try not to be the next "Big Brother").
Like those two CBS series, "The Mole" is a European import. Originally telecast in Belgium, it features 10 contestants who have to work together to complete various physical tasks in order to win a million bucks, and one of the 10 is "The Mole" — a plant, a fraud, an inside man (or woman) whose job it is to sabotage the work.
The new series begins a nine-episode run on Tuesday, Jan. 9, at 7 p.m.
And the ensuing shuffle affects five other shows. "Millionaire" shifts to Fridays at 7 p.m.; "Two Guys and a Girl" slides back from 7 to 8 p.m. on Fridays; and "Norm" shifts from 8 to 8:30 p.m.
The struggling Gabriel Byrne sitcom "Madigan Men" is headed for the netherworld of indefinite hiatus. (Network execs are still evaluating it, but its future looks bleak.) And the new show "Dot Comedy," which premiered last week, is also getting yanked, its future undetermined.
CLAYMATION TO UPN: UPN, which has failed with regular animation ("Dilbert," "Home Movies"), is going to try to succeed with stop-action animation. Claymation, to be exact, like what you see in "The PJs." (And, like that show, this one comes from Will Vinton Studios.)
"Gary & Mike" is a half-hour series about "two hapless twentysomething slackers who hop in their rickety Chevrolet . . . and put the pedal to the metal for an endlessly disastrous road trip across America." Gary is described as "an asthmatic hypochondriac unprepared for life" who is nonetheless loaded with "naive optimism." And Mike is "just along for the ride and most importantly, the chicks."
If this sounds like something designed to appeal to fans of professional wrestling, well, "Gary and Mike" will premiere on Thursday, Jan. 11, at 8:30 p.m. — after a special 90-minutes-only edition of "WWF Smackdown" — before moving to its regular Friday-at-7 p.m. time slot a day later.
SURVIVING THE WWF: Speaking of reality shows and wrestling, Paramount and the WWF are developing a show titled "Manhunt" for UPN.
The show will feature "bounty hunters" chasing their "prey" around an island. And, we're promised, it will feature that WWF attitude.
Well, no need to worry about UPN vying with its sister network, CBS, for the title of the Tiffany network.
TO THE BIG SCREEN? Variety is reporting that "Malcolm in the Middle," Fox's hit sitcom, is being developed as a big-screen comedy as well. Which may or may not be a good idea.
That fact is that there are more laughs in a half-hour episode of "Malcolm" than there are in most two-hour movie comedies. But, oftentimes, TV shows lose something in the translation to the big screen.
It might be worth a try, but let's hope that creator/producer Linwood Boomer comes up with a really good script before this goes very far.
LATER, "LATER": NBC has just canceled a show that's been on the air for more than a dozen years, but unless you're up in the middle of the night you probably won't even notice.
The network is pulling the plug on "Later" — the half-hour interview show that airs after "The Tonight Show" and "Late Night" (1:05 a.m. on Ch. 5 here in Utah) — in January. As with the recent cancellation of "Friday Nights," NBC is planning to try some "experimental" programming in the time slot.
Hosted by Bob Costas (1988-94) and Greg Kinnear (1994-96), the show went with guest hosts for more than three years until Cynthia Garrett was named "Later's" host in January.
This coming January, she'll be looking for a new job.
CASTING ABOUT: Vincent D'Onofrio has been signed to star in the upcoming NBC drama "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," the third show in that franchise, which is set to debut in the fall of 2001.
The show is going into production early — next month — and, apparently, plans are to have 13 episodes completed by spring so that if, as expected, there's a writers' strike next summer, NBC will have at least one new show to put on the air in the fall.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com