TELEVISIONKing of Late Night: Neither Dave nor...

TELEVISION

King of Late Night: Neither Dave nor Jay is winning this week’s ratings race. Ted Koppel has taken the lead, with an especially big margin in New York, which is home to all three men this week as they duke it out for those all-important ratings sweeps. In early numbers for the nation’s top 31 markets, Koppel won Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, with the highest margin on Tuesday when he drew viewers in more than 3.7 million homes, compared to Letterman’s 2.9 million homes and Leno’s 2.3 million homes. But the gap narrowed considerably on Wednesday, when the numbers were 3.1 million households for Koppel, 3.0 million for Letterman and 2.9 million for Leno. In New York, where Leno is visiting in an attempt to win a bigger share of the crucial market, Koppel drew 709,394 viewing homes on Tuesday, compared to Letterman’s 374,774 and Leno’s 240,926. On Wednesday, Koppel averaged 522,007 New York viewing homes, Letterman drew 441,698 and Leno attracted 401,544.

Norville’s ‘America’: Deborah Norville’s new CBS newsmagazine, “America Tonight,” begins its summer tryout June 1, airing Wednesday nights opposite NBC News’ “Now With Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric.” Former “Good Morning America/Sunday” co-anchor Dana King will join Norville as co-anchor.

Execution Broadcast Denied: The North Carolina Supreme Court has refused to let Phil Donahue televise the June 15 execution of convicted murderer David Lawson, who claims he suffers from severe depression. Lawson and Donahue had said that broadcasting the execution would draw attention to depression and its consequences and that the public deserves more information about capital punishment. The court held, however, that neither the state nor the U.S. Constitution gives Donahue or the condemned man the right to videotape the execution. Donahue’s attorney said he will ask the court to reconsider.

RADIO

Listeners Speak: KTWV-FM (94.7 “The Wave”) returns to its all-music morning show today, dropping “The Keri and Sheryl Show” in response to listeners’ demands. Keri Tombazian and Sheryl Bernstein debuted last September in what the station said was an attempt to be innovative. But about 2,000 listeners have since called the station to say they preferred music.

Educational Competitors: KUSC-FM (91.5) has joined with the national Learningsmith educational store chain, whose local outlets (at the Beverly Center and Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza) will now be called KUSC Learningsmith: A General Store for the Curious Mind. The Learningsmith chain is operated by Boston’s public TV station WGBH, and is a direct competitor of the Store of Knowledge that Los Angeles’ public TV station, KCET Channel 28, opened at the Glendale Galleria in April. KUSC-FM, a classical music and fine arts station, is licensing use of its name in return for a percentage of sales.

POP/ROCK

Cobain’s Worth Determined: Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide last month, left behind assets of at least $1.2 million and debts of less than $740,000, according to court papers. The singer apparently had no will, which makes his widow, Courtney Love, and the couple’s 21-month-old daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, sole heirs to the estate.

STAGE

Say Goodby: The hit musical “Ruthless!” will have its last performance at Beverly Hills’ Canon Theatre on June 19 after an eight-month Los Angeles run. The show kicks off a national tour in the fall, with a London opening planned for next spring. . . . On Broadway, the big-budget musical “The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public” will close Saturday after only 15 regular performances and 29 preview shows. The Tommy Tune-directed show suffered from disastrous critical reviews.

QUICK TAKES

The tables turn on TV interviewer Barbara Walters tonight when she gives a rare sit-down interview of her own to TV’s “Hard Copy.” . . . Oliver Stone and Al Pacino have scrapped plans for “Noriega,” in which Pacino was to star as the former Panamanian dictator. Director Stone said that the “cost and complications” of telling Noriega’s story on film were just too high. . . . Twenty-nine black members of Congress have petitioned Fox to save its low-rated series “Roc,” which currently ranks 125th out of 133 network prime-time series. Fox says it hasn’t decided the show’s fate yet, but series star Charles S. Dutton says he’s already been told that the program’s history. . . . Sydney Pollack plans to produce and direct a screen version of John Le Carre’s international bestseller “The Night Manager.” Robert Towne (“Chinatown,” “Shampoo”) will write the screenplay. . . . Actress Marilu Henner has given birth to a son, Nicholas Morgan, born May 12 in Los Angeles.