'Copy' on 6 nights in N.Y.

By RICHARD KLEIN

Paramount's "Hard Copy" is expanding to six nights of original episodes in New York on WCBS-TV starting Saturday at 7:30 p.m. as a precursor to the distrib taking the weekend edition of the tabloid magazine show out to a wider audience.

"We believe, and so does WCBS, that there's a strong interest in this material for the weekend viewer," said Cliff Lachman, senior VP programming and production at Paramount Domestic Television.

While the extra show will air exclusively on WCBS for the time being, "We hope it's the start of something bigger and have every expectation that it's going to be more widely seen all around the country," Lachman said.

"Hard Copy" was dropped by WCBS from its access slot to 4:30 p.m. last fall by Carsey-Werner's ill-fated "You Bet Your Life," but was moved back to the 7 p.m. Monday-Friday time period this past January 4. Paramount reports "Hard Copy" scored a 9 household share on WCBS in the first week of the February sweeps, 29% greater than the performance of "You Bet Your Life" for the November sweeps on that station.