LOS ANGELES – TV networks are raking in cash from their upfront ad sales, which will almost certainly surpass last year’s record of $8.1 billion.

In fact, the total could go as high as $9 billion this season, as several networks are banking double-digit rate increases from advertisers eager to be part of the 2003-04 TV season.

“We will generate significantly more revenue in the upfront than at any time in the network’s history,” Fox Chairman Sandy Grushow told reporters Tuesday. Several news reports say that Fox will likely sell about $1.6 billion worth of prime-time advertising for next season by the time its market closes, up from $1.3 billion last spring.

ABC, NBC and The WB are also finding willing buyers, despite rates, measured in cost per thousand homes, being up anywhere from 12 percent to more than 20 percent in The WB’s case.

TNT welcomes NBC’s ‘Boomtown’

LOS ANGELES – TNT will begin airing episodes of NBC’s acclaimed drama “Boomtown” next week as part of a repurposing deal between the two networks.

The pilot of “Boomtown” will air at 10 p.m. EDT Monday, following a Memorial Day “Law & Order” marathon. TNT will air the remaining episodes from the first season on successive Mondays, which will lead up to right about the time of the show’s second-season debut.

“Boomtown,” which recently won a Peabody Award for its multiple-viewpoint depiction of Los Angeles cops, prosecutors, paramedics and reporters, was considered on the bubble prior NBC’s fall schedule announcement.

The network did pick up the series, moving it from Sunday to Friday nights in the fall.

The deal with TNT is intended to bring in new viewers who will then follow the series into the fall.

“TNT’s audiences of attractive demographic categories will help draw additional eyeballs to “Boomtown’ on NBC and be a key ingredient to helping grow its fan base in season two and beyond,” says Ed Wilson, president of NBC Enterprises, the network’s syndication division.

TNT will also run second-season episodes of the series shortly after they debut on NBC.

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FOX EXECS TIGHT-LIPPED ON “24′ CLIFFHANGER’

LOS ANGELES – The assassination attempt on President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) on Tuesday’s season finale of “24” served more than one purpose.

That’s all that Fox executives are saying at this point. Something about not ruining next season is behind their refusal to reveal more.

“I can confirm for you that an attempt at assassination has been made on the president, and we don’t know what will happen,” Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman told reporters Wednesday about the cliffhanger ending.

Fox Chairman Sandy Grushow offers this helpful hint: “The only thing we can tell you is that Palmer will not win “American Idol.’

After one of the men behind this season’s nuclear-bomb plot was taken out in the finale, a mysterious, European-accented guy on a boat phoned in Plan B. As the show closed, beautiful assassin Mandy (Mia Kirshner) – unseen since the third episode of Season 1 – shook Palmer’s hand and apparently passed some nasty biological agent on to him via a plastic covering on her hand.

Berman does allow that the attempted assassination probably won’t be “the driving force” behind next season, but it does fit in somewhere. Mandy’s reappearance was also a nod to loyal viewers of “24.”

“To bring her back as the person involved in the assassination attempt last night was a huge, big deal for fans of the show. … It was a tip of the hat to loyal viewers,” Berman says. “It also has to do with the story, but I’m not going to go there.”

The real-world question of whether Haysbert will return to the show is up in the air. At the moment, Kiefer Sutherland is the only regular locked into a deal for next season.

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“BUFFY’ FINALE STAKES STRONG RATINGS FOR UPN

LOS ANGELES – “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” went out as it came in – as a hit among younger viewers, if not the general populace.

Tuesday’s series finale, in which Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), the Scoobies and an army of potential slayers battle the First Evil, drew 4.9 million viewers to UPN. The episode drew the biggest audience for the show since October 2002 and finished well above “Buffy’s” season average of 3.8 million viewers.

It also scored well in the teen and young-adult demographics UPN targets. The finale averaged a 2.7 rating among people ages 12-34 and adults 18-34, beating all of the big three networks in the hour. (It trailed only Fox’s “American Idol” sing-off and the “Gilmore Girls” finale on The WB.)

The finale also gave a boost to the premiere of “America’s Next Top Model,” which improved on the time period’s season average across the board.

Of course, “Buffy” was never about getting huge ratings. Based on anecdotal evidence – Internet message boards and the like – the finale seems to have pleased most of the show’s fiercely devoted fans.

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AP-NY-05-22-03 1628EDT