Best: Can Regis and Kelly help WFAN's Ackerman find true love?

Rich Ackerman has wiggled his tush on national TV, had women fly in from Vancouver and Houston to vie for his attention and attended a Rangers game with a date and a camera crew.

So it's fair to say it has not been an ordinary Valentine's season for the unassuming "typical guy'' from Brooklyn, who until last week was best known for doing WFAN updates and MSG Varsity play-by-play.

"It's been different,'' Ackerman said yesterday. "They say you find love when you least expect it, and I certainly never expected this experience, that's for sure.''

Naturally, it's a tad early for true love, given that Ackerman, 41, and his new lady friend, Rachel, went on their first date Wednesday night at the Garden. But it's a start.

That's all Ackerman's friend, Regis Philbin, was looking for last month when he gave up trying to set up the lifelong bachelor at the Manhattan gym where they met about seven years ago and are regulars.

Instead, he deployed the full force of his nationally syndicated TV show, "Live with Regis and Kelly,'' whose audience skews as heavily female as Ackerman's WFAN listeners lean male.

"I think he was anxious and maybe even eager to meet the right girl,'' Philbin said. "We made it work this time so at least there's a date. I can't do it all for him.''

Said Ackerman: "The first moment Regis brought it up at the gym, I looked at him like he had two heads. I thought he was kidding.''

Philbin knew his audience would go for "Project Ack Ack,'' a drama styled after "The Bachelor,'' but with a bachelor and women who look and act like real people and not reality-show glamour pusses.

And also with hockey pucks rather than roses handed out during the selection ceremonies.

"Here's a typical guy, and Valentine's Day is coming,'' Philbin said. "Ack Ack makes a nice presentation, is a nice guy. No baggage, no ex-wife, no kids, nothing. Good fresh meat.''

Hundreds of women entered, and the staff chose 15 to meet him at a cocktail party last week. On Monday, he narrowed the field to six.

On Tuesday, co-host Kelly Ripa and Ackerman's mother, Janet, were seen interviewing candidates, then offering advice before he named three finalists.

The audience had the final say, voting for Rachel, a communications director for a sleep-away camp and a fan of the Mets and Giants.

For former Giant Jesse Palmer and other self-confident alumni of "The Bachelor,'' perhaps it isn't a surprise to have a stranger tear up after being rejected for a date with you. For most men, it's more than a little strange.

"To see women flying in from thousands of miles away to meet you, it's unbelievably touching,'' said Ackerman, who said choosing which women to eliminate was difficult.

Ackerman has taken good-natured ribbing from friends in the media, including Mike Francesa, Ian Eagle and Kenny Albert, who went to NYU with him and has watched from Vancouver while preparing to call Olympic hockey.

Having friends and relatives participate in the journey - to use a popular reality-show word - has been the best part, Ackerman said.

Part of the journey was a makeover, after which he was asked to turn around and shake his booty for the audience.

Ackerman was not allowed to discuss specifics of his date because a video account will be shown on the program Monday.

Regardless of how it turns out, he said the entire experience will make him more outgoing and confident henceforth. "It brings out a side of you that's probably lying beneath the surface,'' he said.

Said Philbin: "If it doesn't work out [with Rachel], I'm sure Ack Ack has access to all of those other phone numbers. It's up to him.''