'Tonight' looking strong

By VARIETY STAFF

"The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" posted its best results since the February sweeps at the start of the May survey, according to daytime and fringe ratings for the April 26-30 Nielsen week.

The NBC talker posted a 5.6 rating, 16 share in its first half-hour and 4.8/ 14 overall, topping "Nightline" (5.0/14), which had been in first place at 11:30 p.m. 10 of the previous 11 weeks.

The Leno show also ranked first among adults 18-49 with a 3.1 rating to a 2 .4 for the ABC news program.

NBC also got off to a relatively good start with its weekend coverage of the NBA basketball playoffs. The crown jewel of the weekend sports race was ABC's coverage of the Kentucky Derby, which crossed the finish line with an 8.5/25.

NBC's NBA coverage peaked with its Sunday afternoon games, which drew a 6.9/ 20 and 7.9/17 as part of a basketball tripleheader.

In other fringe areas the status quo reigned, with ABC's "Good Morning America" (4.7/) running its No. 1 streak to 25 weeks, followed by "Today" (4.2/ 18) and "CBS This Morning" (2.8/12).

In a ho-hum daytime week, CBS ran its win streak to 217 weeks with a 5.1/21, with ABC (4.7/18) close behind and NBC (2.6/10) a distant third. But ABC had a wide margin among the key sales demographic of women 18-49 with a 3.9 average rating to CBS' 2.8 and NBC's 1.7.

The Fox Children's Network is still tops with kids in recent Saturday-morning results with a 5.4/22 in the 2-11 demo, followed by CBS (4.8/20) and ABC (4.6/20 ). CBS (2.5/11) fell to a rare third-place finish in households behind Fox ((3.1 /13) and ABC (2.6/11).