TV Ratings : ‘Malibu’ Rides Popularity Crest

Choosing summer to launch a prime-time soap opera set in Malibu proved to be a knockout scheduling ploy for CBS as the Sunday debut of “2000 Malibu Road” attracted the largest audience on TV last week. Figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. showed that viewers in more than 14.8 million homes tuned in to see the series’ two-hour opener. That helped boost CBS to a narrow win over its competitors: It averaged a 7.9 rating for the week, compared to 7.4 for NBC and 7.3 for ABC.

* With the conventions as its main competition, Fox’s new telling of the “Bonnie & Clyde” story on Aug. 17 tied for 29th among the week’s 93 prime-time programs. For the week, Fox wound up finishing second among the networks with a 7.5 ratings average--but that average was for Fox’s 14 hours of programming, versus 22 each for ABC, CBS and NBC.

Points Share 1. “2000 Malibu Road” (CBS) 16.1 28 2. “Roseanne” (ABC) 15.5 26 3. “60 Minutes” (CBS) 13.7 29 4. “Cheers” (NBC) 12.5 22 5. “Arresting Behavior” (ABC) 12.4 21 * “Bonnie & Clyde” (Fox) 8.7 15

(Each rating point represents 921,000 homes. Share is the percentage of viewing audience.)