Raquel Welch’s TV Debut Pushed Back

Tough break, Raquel Welch fans. (We know who we are.)

CBS has pushed back the return of “Central Park West” originally set for later this month until some time this summer. Here’s why: Despite massive hype, Darren Star’s freshman soap was pulverized in the fall. By holding it until after the official ‘95-‘96 season, CBS can’t get hurt in the final ratings.

Welch, along with Gerald McRaney, was added to the “CPW” cast to attract CBS’s traditional read, older - viewers. In her firstever series, Welch will play Dianna Brock, nasty ex-wife of media mogul Adam Brock (McRaney), who has taken over Communique magazine from his rival, Allen Rush (Ron Leibman.)

The 55-year-old Welch describes Dianna as “an indiscriminate bitch. I’ve never played one of those. I played a bitch on Broadway, in ‘Woman of the Year.’ People just love that. When a bitch takes off her gloves, she gets to be really mean and cunning.”

Want mean and cunning? Mr. Brock has the hots for Rush’s wife (Lauren Hutton), who gets into a major catfight with our Dianna. (Paging Joan Collins and Linda Evans.) Then Dianna’s daughter (Noelle Beck) shows up, intent on revenge after being abandoned by Mom 12 years earlier.

Whether “CPW” returns in midseason - CBS will have its fall lineup set by May - is anybody’s guess. But here’s something you can bank on: Welch’s Dianne will show more cleavage than the Grand Canyon. (Welch, a grandmother, can still elicit gasps when she enters a room, as she did recently in L.A.)

“I don’t think you put Raquel Welch in a show to have her dress like a schoolmarm,” says CBS Entertainment chief Les Moonves. “She’s sexy. You don’t hire her to be in ‘Little House on the Prairie’ with Angela Lansbury.”