Michael Jackson - the end was televised.

If you are one of the many contrarians who have asked "why all this coverage for a dead pop singer?" over the last several days and weeks today there is an answer. Given the dearth of Summer programming and the lack of interesting tv to see - they might just dig the guy up and kill him again!


(photo copyright NYPOST.com)


CNN reported that over 1 billion people watched the funeral/memorial service this week. 1 Billion people! Today's NY Times provides some details: 18 channels simulcast the service, 31 million at home viewers, CNN.com said it served 4.4 million live video streams (that's folks without cable or cheating at work), MSNBC.com counted 3.1 million, Yahoo reported 5 million streaming viewers. Compare this to the 33 million viewers to Princess Diana's funeral.

Today's New York Times also carries a great little piece by Gail Collins , "Michael, a Foreign Affair" that explains quite nicely how these things work today and have worked in the past. Turns out newspapers and media have always over reported death of celebrities, local or otherwise.