By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former "Frasier" star Kelsey Grammer, who reigned for 20 years as U.S. television's most lovable snob, may be his own toughest act to follow as he returns to prime-time on Wednesday playing a pompous TV news anchor.

He joins another of TV's best-known names, "Everybody Loves Raymond" veteran Patricia Heaton, in the new Fox network comedy "Back to You," a series many broadcast executives are hoping can revive the moribund format of the traditional sitcom.

The show has drawn mixed reviews and is being launched on a highly competitive night by a network better known for cartoon fare, edgy dramas and "American Idol" than traditional comedies.

Critics have cited the talents of Grammer, Heaton and a creative team led by former "Frasier" producers Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, as the key strengths of "Back to You."

But star power alone has long been proven insufficient to guarantee prime-time success. While a number of TV's powerhouse performers have managed successful comebacks, the road to cancellation is littered with shows built around returning sitcom stars.

That hasn't kept Grammer, who played the awkwardly erudite psychiatrist Frasier Crane for two decades on the NBC hit comedy "Cheers" and its spinoff, "Frasier," from thinking big.

"I'm thrilled to be back doing something I'm good at," Grammer, 52, recently told TV critics. "What would be wrong with doing three of the greatest television shows in history?"

His last prime-time outing, the 2005 "Kelsey Grammer Presents: The Sketch Show," also aired on Fox and was a short-lived flop.

For "Back to You," Grammer returns to his sitcom roots.

RETURN TO ROOTS

Grammer stars as fallen TV news anchor and womanizer Chuck Darling, reunited with former co-anchor Kelly Carr (Heaton) after an on-camera Internet gaffe costs him his plum Los Angeles job and lands him back at his old Pittsburgh station.

Now Darling and Carr, who once shared an off-air newsroom romance, set out to restore their station, WURG, to the No. 1 ratings they enjoyed in their heyday.

Producers say they deliberately tailored Darling to resemble Grammer's familiar TV alter ego, Frasier. The two share a self-absorbed pomposity, though Grammer said Darling is more comfortable in his own skin than Frasier.

"We wanted someone that was obviously not Frasier again, but not so far away from Frasier that people would say, 'Well, what, he's a sheriff in Alaska?'" Lloyd said.

Heaton, too, remains in familiar territory with a character who, like Ray Romano's wife Deborah on "Everybody Loves Raymond," is "controlling and rational," as described by Hollywood Reporter critic Barry Garron.

He and others say the show's multicamera format, shot with a live audience, gives it a conventional sitcom feel that has fallen out of favor as reality shows, single-camera hits like "The Office" and drama-comedy hybrids have grown more popular.

"The jury is out on this one. ... It is a classic form of sitcom that has hit on hard times," said TV Guide critic Matt Roush, adding it would take more than one modest success to restore old-fashioned TV comedies to their former glory.

But a failure by "Back to You," given its strong pedigree, could be a severe setback for the genre.

"Even rival networks would be encouraged if there's an audience for this show," Roush said. "If this thing is an absolute dud, you're going to see a lot of comedy writers jumping out of windows."