Jackson memorial among top TV moments

July 9, 6:08 PMAtlanta TV ExaminerStephen Anthony Campbell

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Paris Katherine Jackson at Michael Jackson's memorial service July 7, 2009
AP Photo / Gabriel Bouys, Pool

Whether you think the coverage of Michael Jackson’s memorial was too much or not, it will go down in history as one of the top TV moments of all time. The media is already in a frenzy over Paris Katherine Jackson’s heartfelt farewell to her father.

18 broadcast and cable networks aired the Michael Jackson memorial live. According to the Nielsen Media Research estimates, more than 31.1 million viewers watched the Jackson memorial. That estimate doesn’t include people watching the memorial on the internet or on DVR’s at a later time. There is still no tally yet on the number of viewers watching worldwide.

The Michael Jackson memorial managed to slightly top the number of viewers watching when Jackson was acquitted in 2005. The day of Michael Jackson’s acquittal 30.6 million viewers tuned in to watch the verdict.

The Jackson memorial becomes the second most watched televised funeral. Princess Diana’s funeral had an estimated 33.25 million U.S. viewers. Former President Ronald Regan’s funeral received 20.8 million viewers.

The exact number of online viewers is unknown. Some of the major news websites are reporting viewer stats that give some insight into how many people watched online. MSNBC.com says that it had a record 19 millions streams of video from its site. CNN.com reports that it had 4.4 million streams during the service and 10.5 million overall, making it the second busiest day in its history.
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