TV RATINGS : Viewers Switch to NBC’s ‘Birth’

NBC, which barely hung on to win the prime-time ratings race this season for the sixth year in a row, got off to a good start in the May ratings sweeps with the first installment of “Switched at Birth.” Figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. showed that the opening night of the two-part drama attracted viewers in about 19 million homes, more than any other program last week. That was the best Sunday showing by an NBC made-for-TV movie in two years and helped push the network to a comfortable victory for the week over ABC and CBS. The full list of ratings is on F11.

* If the ratings for last Friday’s premiere hold up, ABC’s “Dinosaurs” won’t be extinct for a long time. The comedy--in which dinosaur characters take the parts in what might otherwise pass as a blue-collar family comedy from the 1950s--outdrew both the ABC series ahead of it and behind it and ranked No. 7 among the week’s 90 prime-time programs. The network didn’t fare as well with another new entry, “My Life and Times,” which ranked No. 45 in its first outing Wednesday, trailing NBC’s coverage of the Academy of Country Music Awards, which came in at No. 10.

Show Points Share 1. “Switched at Birth” (NBC) 20.4 32 2. “Cheers” (NBC) 19.3 31 3. “60 Minutes” (CBS) 17.1 33 4. “L.A. Law” (NBC) 17.0 28 “Murder, She Wrote” (CBS) 17.0 28 * “Dinosaurs” (ABC) 15.9 29