Now ‘Murphy’ Faces Real Pregnancy Test : Television: With Candice Bergen’s character opting for parenthood, ‘Murphy Brown’ creator Diane English realizes some viewership is at risk.

Although die-hard “Murphy Brown” fans waited all summer to find out who the father of her child was in last season’s most talked about TV cliffhanger, the real bomb in Monday night’s conclusion turned out to be Murphy’s decision to keep the child.

“Good Lord, this could be the worst decision anyone’s made in television since Rhoda’s wedding!” one of Murphy’s colleagues exclaimed in the show.

He could be right. In the mid-1970s, legions of “Rhoda” fans began tuning out when the self-deprecating, slightly overweight single woman was transformed into a slimmed-down, happy housewife. Will “Murphy Brown” regulars respond now that the acerbic, tough-as-nails TV reporter played by Candice Bergen has decided to take a baby to her breast?

“I do expect some complaints,” creator and co-executive producer Diane English said Tuesday. “I do think there will be some fans who will be disappointed.”

The “Murphy Brown” production office did, indeed, field a small number of phone calls Tuesday from angry viewers questioning the decision to bring a baby into the life of Murphy, who has become a sort of contemporary icon for independent working women. But English insisted that motherhood will not change Murphy.

“Not at all,” English said. “She’s going to be the same cranky, crabby, aggressive woman we know. But she will have a child to make room for in her life. She’ll be Murphy Brown with a baby. This will be a series about a reporter who happens to have a child, and not about a mother who happens to be a reporter.”

The cliffhanger of Murphy’s pregnancy (the father turned out to be ex-husband Jake) turned into a ratings bonanza for CBS. Monday’s hourlong episode attracted 35% of the available audience--about 22 million homes--making it a strong candidate to finish as the No. 1 show of the week.

English said that the decision for Murphy to keep the child was not a stunt. The story line was developed in the summer of last year, after the series’ second season.

“And it only got better for us when Connie Chung announced she was stepping down from her show to try and have a child, when (’60 Minutes’ executive producer) Don Hewitt and (CBS News correspondent) Meredith Vieira disagreed over her child, etc., etc.,” English said. “It seemed like every time you turned around there was another woman becoming pregnant and having to deal with it and her job.

“So it became more and more clear to us that we were doing something right, not only because it was reflecting what was really going on out there with women who do this job, but it was right for this show, to give Murphy Brown her ultimate challenge, to open up her life to someone who would be completely dependent upon her.”

Of the coming 25 episodes this season, English said that only a handful will deal directly with the pregnancy, such as the baby shower, determining the baby’s sex and Lamaze classes. The child will be delivered during the season finale on the series’ 100th episode--just in time for the May ratings sweeps.

“When you’re dealing with a 42-year-old, and I put myself in that category, people think you’re set, you don’t change, you’re baked already,” said English, who is 43. “It is difficult to look at a 42-year-old character and say, ‘How do we grow this character? Where do we take her?’ There are events that happen to people that force them to look at life with a new perspective. Pregnancy is one of them.”

If mother Murphy doesn’t bring new viewers to the show, as English hopes will happen, she may at least bring in new advertisers.

“I saw a home pregnancy test (Monday night), and a lot of diaper and baby-related advertising,” English said.