‘China Beach’ Caught in More Ratings Cross-Fire : Programming: ABC’s award-winning series about the women of Vietnam moves to a new time slot tonight--and it could be its final battle.

Call it the Network Battle for Monday Night. Or, maybe, McMurphy’s Last Stand.

ABC tonight moves Nurse Colleen McMurphy, K. C., Dr. Dick Richard, Pvt. Sam Beckett and the rest of the “China Beach” bivouac to 9 p.m., opposite the two strongest shows in CBS’ otherwise tarnished comedy lineup: “Murphy Brown” and “Designing Women.” And adding heat to the ratings cross-fire, NBC moves its action hit “Hunter” to the same time period.

The ABC and NBC moves are part of efforts to help the launches of new series, but, for ABC’s 3-year-old drama about the women of the Vietnam War, tonight’s move could mean it’s last chance in prime time.

The critically acclaimed, marginally rated show has been in intensive care for months, and the move to a time period already dominated by shows with similar audience appeal could kill it.

“Ideally, it’s not where we want to be,” said executive producer John Sacret Young. “Our fear is that the Monday night audience we’re playing to is people who watch ‘Murphy Brown’ and ‘Designing Women.’ The audience is similar to ours and the shows are somewhat similar to ours.”

“We understand ‘Murphy Brown’ and ‘Designing Women’ both have strong female appeal, but they are by no means runaway hits,” countered Ted Harbert, an ABC Entertainment executive vice president for prime time. “The way you go after the audience is with very different and strong counterprogramming to that.”

According to Harbert, “China Beach” was moved in part because ABC had a large inventory of 10 p.m. shows that were not needed early in the season but that the network wanted to air. “Equal Justice,” a drama about prosecuting attorneys, was given “China Beach’s” 10 p.m. time slot.

A second reason was to promote the new newspaper drama, “Capital News,” which follows “China Beach” tonight at 10.

“The move of ‘China Beach’ is a signal of how strongly we feel about it,” said Harbert. “We wanted to start 9 p.m. off with a show with audience loyalty. Putting two new shows there was a risk that would not have been prudent.”

“It’s almost mysterious,” says producer Young. “We don’t have the choice in the game of Russian roulette that you play in the programming of time slots. We just try to do the best shows we can.”

But “China Beach” presents ABC with a dilemma.

The dramatic series is generally considered a good, high-quality show. Its popular star Dana Delany took the Emmy last year for best actress in a dramatic series. The show picked up the Golden Globe award for best dramatic television series this year. Critics give it good marks.

But the ratings for the series have been, at best, marginal. It ranks just 61st out of 107 Big Three network shows broadcast this season. But the show regularly topped its Wednesday night competition--NBC’s “Quantum Leap” and “Wiseguy” on CBS. And, just as important, the series was the time period’s most popular among men and women in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 age group.

“ ‘China Beach’ is the leader among women 18 to 49,” said Harbert, “that’s the overriding demographic we’re looking for. That’s its strongest selling point, along with the quality of the show.”

Last month, after ABC announced that “China Beach” would be placed on hiatus and then moved to Monday, fans were outraged. They wrote ABC asking that it not kill the series.

“This is no way to treat a Golden Globe and Emmy winner that’s held its own in the ratings for 2 1/2 years,” said supporter Dorothy Swanson, founder of Viewers for Quality Television, a Fairfax, Va.-based group that lobbies the networks for better programming. The series ranked first in a season-long member survey of TV best shows.

“There are nights you can’t find anything worth watching,” said Swanson, “but to put one quality show against two others isn’t the way to win back viewers.”

Swanson’s 3,500-member group and the American Assn. of Critical-Care Nurses are fostering letter-writing campaigns to help “China Beach” win a renewal.

The nursing organization sent its 66,000 members a letter encouraging them to voice their opinions to the network in hopes of saving the series.

“ ‘China Beach’ shows that nurses have knowledge, caring and compassion and yet are real people,” said association president Suzanne K. White. “That’s important for the public and young people to see. ‘China Beach’ is based on how nurses really respond and it portrays to young people that nursing is an important, worthwhile profession.”

The series even has friends at the network.

“ ‘China Beach’ has got a lot of fans over here,” said Harbert. “ ‘China Beach’ is under heavy, heavy consideration. We want to find every way we can to bring it back.”

Harbert said “China Beach’s” rating performance in its new time period will not figure into ABC’s decision to renew it.

“It would be unfair to use Monday night, because it wouldn’t be there in the fall because that’s when we have football,” Harbert said. “We’ll be evaluating the 20 original episodes from Wednesday night. As an incumbent, ‘China Beach’ has better odds than a new show because we know how it performs and it is a show of high quality.”

Tonight’s episode will allow new viewers will get a chance to catch-up with some character history. Usually set in 1968, “China Beach” moves back to 1966 in tonight’s episode, beginning with McMurphy enlisting in the Army, continuing through basic training and her first days at China Beach.