Goodbye Jane Austen. Hello 'Dog the Bounty Hunter.'

In the opening monologue of the A&E network's new reality show ''Knievel's Wild Ride," daredevil protagonist Robbie Knievel has a few choice words for people who think he should idolize his father, Evel.

Kiss my butt, he tells the camera, using another word entirely.

A bar fight with tattooed musclemen ensues. Later in the show, which debuts Tuesday night, Robbie climbs on his motorcyle and pops a wheelie.

This is the new face of A&E -- the network once considered a commercial version of PBS -- whose acronym stood for Arts and Entertainment.

Classic favorites like ''Nero Wolfe" and ''Sherlock Holmes Mysteries" have been replaced by the youth-skewing reality shows ''Dog the Bounty Hunter," ''Airline," ''Growing Up Gotti," and now ''Knievel's Wild Ride."

Last month, A&E premiered the controversial ''Intervention," featuring people who confront family members about their addictions. Next year, look for a docu-soap about Texas women who work out their stress at the roller derby.

''Classic arts programs, whether theater or ballet, are not where our network is going," says Bob DeBitetto, A&E's executive vice president of programming. ''Our tagline now is the art of entertainment."

Fans of drawing-room mysteries may shudder at the new formula, but the ratings tell another story: A&E's makeover is working. In the first quarter of this year, A&E was the fastest-growing cable network among two coveted groups, 18- to 34-year-olds and 18- to 49-year-olds.

Does the television landscape, already flooded with reality shows, need another Spike TV, a decidedly lowbrow network whose programs have been known to trick reality show contestants and smash up cars?

What's more, is there any hope for the future of fine arts on television?

''Unwittingly, this is an endorsement for the need to keep PBS alive," says John Rash, director of broadcast negotiations at Campbell Mithun Advertising in Minneapolis.

With a similiar evolution occurring at Bravo in the last four years, Rash believes classic arts programming and films are being marginalized, and in the future they will be shifted onto small digital cable channels.

''There will always be some programming and some networks geared towards it. It will be available to those who choose to subscribe," he says. ''But fine arts should not simply be something for people who can afford satellite or digital cable."

To be sure, A&E, which is available in 88 million homes on basic cable, hasn't aired an entire ballet performance in more than a decade. The network coproduced the Jane Austen classic ''Pride and Prejudice" in 1995, but more recently it has been known for a lack of clear direction. Its shrewdest decision was picking up the syndicated ''Law & Order," which generated its biggest ratings for much of the last decade.

Yet when TNT won the rights to ''Law & Order" in September 2003, A&E was forced to face the future. After a change in the executive suite in October of that year, the transformation began.

First up: how to become a top 10 network. Currently, A&E ranks No. 11 among cable networks. TNT averages the highest number of total viewers in prime time, with 2.6 million. A&E averages 1.2 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.

''We decided we would take some calculated risks, try to get talked about and get noticed," says DeBitetto. ''Over the last 20 years, A&E has had one of the great documentary franchises. It has a grand tradition of storytelling."

Acknowledging that reality TV is the new documentary, A&E got to work, he says. ''We needed to become a player again in the genre that was capturing the imagination of viewers," he says.

The Robbie Knievel show will follow the biker as he crosses the country, preparing for life-or-death jumps. The surrogate family that travels with him includes a mechanic and a bodyguard.

Executive producer Matt Chan says the show will sustain itself because Knievel's modest lifestyle is entertaining and his jumps are potentially deadly.

''Unlike so many reality shows, there's nothing contrived about Robbie," he says. ''He's happy to sleep in an RV in a parking lot somewhere. He doesn't want to stay at the Ritz-Carlton."

Despite critics who bemoan the changes, A&E says its modern image is resonating with viewers.

Today, ''Dog the Bounty Hunter," the network's most popular prime-time show, is averaging 1.6 million viewers. It stars, yes, a bounty hunter named Dog, his tough-as-nails wife, Beth, who is also a bondswoman, and the 12 children they have between them.

''Cold Case Files," a documentary series about detectives around the country who use forensics to solve crimes, is averaging 1.5 million viewers, making it A&E's No. 2 prime-time show.

A&E executives reject the suggestion that they are sacrificing quality. ''We don't want to go to the lowest common denominator with . . . shock value, like 'Fear Factor,' " said DeBitetto.

''If you look at our programming, it is all character based," he adds. ''These are not contest shows. Robbie Knievel is a complex character who is honest about who he is. He has a difficult relationship with his father and a band of 'Easy Rider' comrades. I think it's great storytelling."

Backing up his claim, DeBitetto points out that A&E had 24 Emmy nominations last year, more than any other basic-cable outlet and the most in A&E's 21-year history.

What's more, the average age of A&E's viewer has dropped from 61 in 2003 to 51 today.

''Ageism is abhorrent to me, but having mostly 61-year-old viewers was a huge problem," says DeBitetto.

Industry producers have certainly taken notice of the face lift. While programs like ''Airline" -- a reality show that profiles crew and passengers on Southwest Airlines -- may not be blockbusters, they have potential, experts say.

''A lot of their shows are not my cup of tea, but you have to kiss a lot of frogs in this business," says Eli Holzman, the head of television at Katalyst Films in Los Angeles. Holzman helped produce ''Project Runway" for Bravo and is currently developing another reality show for the WB.

''Before HBO had 'Sex and the City' and 'The Sopranos,' they had 'Arliss,' " he said. ''I would liken A&E to that of an awkward 13-year-old girl whose nose is too big and who has braces. It's a necessary stage of evolution."

If network executives have their way, A&E will broaden its identity in the very near future. For one thing, it scored a major attention-getting coup by securing the rights to broadcast a syndicated version of HBO's mafia drama ''The Sopranos."

The network reportedly paid $2.5 million an episode for ''The Sopranos," the most in cable-syndication history, and is counting on the hit drama to bring in new viewers, since 70 percent of the households where A&E is available have never seen the show.

Next month, it will premiere the Vietnam War movie ''Faith of My Fathers," which is based on the memoirs of Senator John McCain.

The network also hopes to increase the prestige of its documentaries, setting up a division to scout film festivals and develop projects that could also reach theaters. They include the rugby documentary ''Murderball," as well as next month's ''Bearing Witness," in which Academy Award-winner Barbara Kopple chronicles the work of five female journalists during the war in Iraq and other tough assignments.

Arts programming still has a place, though in a quiet spot. Each Sunday morning, ''Breakfast With the Arts" features musical performances and interviews. Today, the guests are Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal, founding members of Tears for Fears.

DeBitetto says in the future he plans to offer an equal balance of nonfiction and scripted programming, with every night devoted to a certain genre.

Reruns of Fox's ''24" will air in prime time this fall with ''The Sopranos" following in fall 2006.

''Without question, [''The Sopranos"] is the most powerful scripted drama to come along in the last 20 years," DeBitetto says. With the show on the schedule, A&E will have a strong promotional vehicle to launch original scripted dramas of its own, he says.

While the show's violence and strong language will have to be toned down to accommodate advertisers, DeBitetto says he plans to do the ''absolute minimum" in order to stay true to the program.

But is the hulking presence of Tony Soprano enough to convince viewers to stick around and watch a motorcyclist jump over cars?

Media critic Thomas Doherty, a professor of American studies at Brandeis University, thinks so.

''There's a big market," he says, ''for lowbrow."