Over 35 but hooked on the WB?

You no longer need fear visits from the network's secret police just because you spend your evening watching shows like "Everwood," "Gilmore Girls" and "One Tree Hill."

In fact, the WB would like to publicly welcome as a viewer (even if it's still selling commercials on the basis of its 12- to 34-year-old audience).

"To the extent that we've presented ourselves as a teenage network, we've made a mistake," WB chairman Garth Ancier told us this morning.

After one of the worst years in its history (and a reshuffling at the top that left Ancier in charge), the WB's apparently noticed that some shows on more, er, adult networks -- like CBS -- attract more of their target demo than they do.

When I mentioned "CSI" to Ancier as an example of a show that attracts far more teens than any show on the WB, he was quick to admit that he'd love to have that show on his network. (Dream on, Garth.)

That's something I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have heard at a WB press conference six months ago.

The network's new entertainment president, veteran producer David Janollari ("Six Feet Under"), is also on board the welcome wagon. The WB will continue to sell ads based on the 12-34 demo, he said, but "would we welcome people older than that? Absolutely. Would we welcome more men? Absolutely."

One grownup who's apparently taking Ancier and Janollari at their word is Christine Lahti, who's starring in one of the best new shows of the season, "Jack & Bobby," on a network she admits she's hardly seen up to now (despite having three children between the ages of 10 and 15).

In the show -- whose only relation to the Kennedy brothers is that Lahti's history professor character names her two sons after them -- she plays the mother of a future president. Set in the present day but with flashes forward to 2049, "Jack & Bobby" comes from the makes of "Everwood" as well as from Thomas Schlamme, the former exec producer of NBC's "The West Wing" (who not coincidentally is married to Lahti).

Lahti, whose last network series was CBS' "Chicago Hope," said working with Schlamme has never been a problem for her.

"I...find that he listens a lot better as a director than he does as a husband," she said. "I actually prefer working with him than being married to him."