'Friends' Ready for 'Survivor' Match

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) â€” NBC plans to expand episodes of ``Friends'' by 10 minutes and air live skits by the cast of ``Saturday Night Live'' to fight CBS' ``Survivor'' on Thursday

Tuesday, January 16th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) â€” NBC plans to expand episodes of ``Friends'' by 10 minutes and air live skits by the cast of ``Saturday Night Live'' to fight CBS' ``Survivor'' on Thursday nights beginning Feb. 1, USA Today reported.

The paper said in Tuesday's editions that new NBC entertainment president Jeff Zucker met with the ``Friends'' cast last week to suggest expanding the episodes and include guest appearances by Susan Sarandon and Jason Alexander.

It said the ``Saturday Night Live'' skits are now scheduled for the first two weeks of February, but might continue beyond that. Another possibility is using ``Friends'' highlights from previous shows from 8:40 p.m EST to 9 p.m.

The paper said NBC is focusing on blunting the impact of ``Survivor,'' which is scheduled to run for 14 weeks, during the February sweeps period when stations set ad rates for the next few months.