CAN Joey Tribbiani make it in Hollywood?

That all depends on whether “Joey,” NBC’s widely anticipated “Friends” replacement, can make it in the golden “Friends” time slot – Thursday nights at 8 on NBC.

“Joey,” the “Friends” spinoff, takes up residence there this week with Joey (Matt LeBlanc), the none-too-bright former “Friend,” moving from New York to California and setting up housekeeping in a Hollywood apartment, not far from his hair stylist sister, Gina (Drea de Matteo), and her 20-year-old genius son, Michael (Paulo Costanzo).

In Hollywood, Joey will hopefully meet new friends as he auditions for the kind of acting jobs that largely eluded him in New York.

Viewers are already familiar with Joey and are bound to like him, with or without his old friends. The real wild card in “Joey” is Drea de Matteo, who more than held her own on TV’s toughest drama, “The Sopranos,” and now gets to show us if she also has the right stuff for prime-time comedy.

JOEY

Thursday, 8 p.m., NBC