“1986,” 10 p.m. Tuesday (4)(36)(39) (Illustrated on...

“1986,” 10 p.m. Tuesday (4)(36)(39) (Illustrated on cover)--If at first you don’t succeed. . . .

NBC certainly hasn’t. While CBS has its “60 Minutes” and ABC has its “20/20,” the peacock network has never developed a successful prime-time news magazine.

It keeps trying, however.

The latest effort--its 14th--is “1986,” premiering Tuesday. It’s a revamped version of “American Almanac,” which got launched on a monthly basis last season but never made it to weekly status. “1986” is off to a better start: Besides its weekly summer run, it already has been slotted on NBC’s fall schedule, in this same time period.

Roger Mudd (on the cover), who anchored “American Almanac,” will be joined in that capacity on “1986” by Connie Chung, the former anchorwoman at KCBS-TV Channel 2 who more recently has been hosting NBC’s “News at Sunrise” program.

Correspondents for “1986” will be Ed Rabel and Jack Severson. On the opening installment, Rabel reports on an estimated 200 companies nationwide that put young people into “virtual slavery” to sell products door-to-door.