Simpson Interview May Set Ratings Record : Television: Executives predict that despite intense criticism, the program could rival the Super Bowl in number of viewers.

Despite a flood of protest calls that tied up NBC phone lines in New York and Burbank for hours Tuesday, some television industry executives predicted that the network’s interview with O.J. Simpson tonight will attract one of the largest audiences in TV history.

“With 51 million people watching the verdict and 95 million watching the Bronco chase, this interview could be one of the highest-rated TV shows ever,” said Jon Mandell, senior vice president of the Grey Advertising agency in New York.

“This is a drama that has captivated the nation for 18 months--and it’s the first chance to hear O.J. himself speak,” he said. “We’re certainly into Super Bowl country.”

CBS and Fox echoed that sentiment by scrambling Tuesday to change their prime-time schedules for tonight, replacing original programming with repeats.

The hourlong interview--Simpson’s first since he was charged last year with the brutal slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman--will begin at NBC’s Burbank studios sometime between 5:30 and 6 p.m. It will be broadcast live to much of the country in the middle of a special three-hour edition of the newsmagazine “Dateline NBC,” but the program will be shown on tape delay on the West Coast from 8 to 11 p.m.

Despite the expected ratings bonanza, NBC is facing a backlash of anger from viewers who oppose the interview. The network was inundated with calls Tuesday, many of them at the behest of the National Organization for Women, which has staged numerous protests against Simpson since a jury found him not guilty last week.

“We’re going to show NBC that if they associate with a batterer, they will pay the consequences,” said Tammy Bruce, president of the NOW chapter in Los Angeles. “This [interview] is a Simpson infomercial disguised as a ‘Dateline’ special. I mean, give me a break! That’s pathetic and insulting.”

Bruce said a picket line would be set up outside NBC’s Burbank studios at 6 tonight. “We’re going to send a message to NBC that they can’t get away with this,” she said.

But not all the calls were from NOW members, said NBC insiders. Some made threats to destroy NBC property and cause physical harm to employees because of the interview, they said.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere at the Burbank headquarters was tense as employees and executives struggled with their own frayed nerves and those of the angry protesters.

One employee said: “There are a lot of people working here who are angry that NBC is doing this in the first place, saying that it’s irresponsible and in extremely poor taste. Then there are those who are very worried about the security problems.”

NBC executives, who plan additional security measures at the Burbank studios, acknowledged concern about the negative phone calls. “Obviously, you don’t want to anger your audience,” one executive said.

But NBC News President Andrew Lack said, “This is a legitimate news story. And while people have many concerns, we can’t let any one group determine what we will cover.”

Lack said that representatives from women’s groups and other organizations would be invited to participate in a “reaction” segment on “Dateline NBC” after the Simpson interview. The other portions of the program will report on the trial, the aftermath of the verdict and the issues raised by the case.

Lack said he thought some of the protest calls were coming from viewers who mistakenly believe “that we are paying for the interview.” NBC has said it is not paying Simpson or his representatives any money or other considerations for appearing on the program.

Still, Lack acknowledged, with passions running so high, NBC is damned if it does, damned if it doesn’t when it comes to the questions that will be asked by interviewers Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric.

“We are effectively in a no-win situation when it comes to people’s perceptions about O.J. Simpson,” he said. “A lot of people will be offended by anything O.J. Simpson says or any appearance he makes. On the other side of the spectrum, this is not a courtroom, and we are not lawyers. All I can say is that we intend to ask a lot of tough questions--about the evidence, domestic abuse, the timelines of the case.”

Some observers were skeptical as to how forthcoming Simpson would be, given that he is far from out of the legal woods. He still faces wrongful-death lawsuits filed by the victims’ families.

Peter Arenella, a professor of law at UCLA who has closely followed the case, downplayed the significance of the interview and the insights it would bring.

“If you really believe this is a ‘no-holds-barred’ interview, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you,” Arenella said. “I can’t imagine any lawyer worth his salt who would permit O.J. Simpson to answer any and all questions that an intelligent inquisitor would ask.”

Noting that Simpson has an upcoming deposition in the wrongful-death civil case, he said, “One could look at the interview as a dress rehearsal for that deposition. . . . They will get a background sense of what is and what isn’t permissible to ask. It doesn’t prejudice O.J. Simpson by offering a general denial of his guilt.”

One veteran investigative TV reporter said that especially in a live interview, Simpson will have some advantages when he faces Brokaw and Couric.

“It is possible that Simpson will become angry or reveal aspects of himself that his lawyers didn’t want the jury to see,” the journalist said. “But he’s a trained actor, and it’s going to be difficult for Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric to contradict him on the minutiae of the case because they haven’t been reporting on it every day.”

NBC’s Lack said that Brokaw and Couric have consulted with some legal experts about their questions.

“It is tricky to ask follow-up questions and cover all the ground you want to cover in a live interview,” Lack said. “But, while Tom and Katie haven’t been the correspondents reporting from the field on this story, they have been following it closely and reporting on it on the air practically every day.”

Lack said Simpson expects some tough questions. “There may be some questions that he won’t be able to answer due to the pending civil suits,” said Lack, who noted that Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. will be in the studio but not on camera.

“I don’t know exactly how forthcoming Simpson will be,” Lack said. “But when I talked to him [to discuss a possible interview] over the past few days, I made it clear to him that there’s no point in doing this exercise unless he plans to answer a lot of questions. He agreed with that.”

The interview portion of the “Dateline” program is scheduled to run without commercial interruptions. NBC executives said it would have been inappropriate for the network to make money from the interview with Simpson, who formerly worked for the network as a football analyst.

“We’re not doing this to make money,” Larry Hoffner, the NBC executive in charge of ad sales, said. In fact, the network said it stands to lose $2 million on the program.

Still, it will reap a bonanza of high ratings and recognition for “Dateline” and NBC. “Everybody is going to be watching this interview,” Mandell said.

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Hall reported from New York, Braxton from Los Angeles.