N.Y. STATION WILL DROP ‘ET’ SERIES

“Entertainment Tonight,” the syndicated show-biz news series, will be dropped next September by ABC-owned WABC-TV in New York because of disappointing ratings, a spokeswoman for the station said Tuesday.

The show had been aired by WABC for three years in the nation’s largest television market. It will be be replaced in its 7:30 p.m. time slot on the station by “The New Hollywood Squares,” the spokeswoman said.

“Entertainment Tonight,” now in its fifth season, currently is carried by 152 stations, including NBC-owned KNBC in Los Angeles, according to a spokeswoman for the program. It is produced by Paramount Television.

WABC’s decision was the second setback this month for Paramount. Two weeks ago, four CBS-owned stations, including KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, said they were dropping the new syndicated “America” talk show series co-produced by Paramount and Post-Newsweek Stations, Inc.

The cancellations, effective Jan. 3, led to a decision by Paramount and Post-Newsweek to fold “America,” which had premiered in September and was carried by 114 stations at the time the CBS outlets said they were dropping it from their daytime schedules.

A top Paramound executive, who declined to be identified, had no comment on WABC’s plans to drop “Entertainment Tonight.” But he expressed confidence that a new outlet for it will be found in New York, and also said that the series’ national ratings “are still very, very high.”