Coverage of pope’s funeral draws huge audience

More than 9 million people woke up early or stayed up late to watch last Friday’s TV coverage of Pope John Paul II’s funeral from Rome, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The bulk of those viewers – 8.8 million – tuned to ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel or MSNBC, all of which carried the Mass live.

An estimated 370,000 people watched on either Telemundo, Azteca America or Univision, Nielsen said.

The funeral began at 4 a.m. on the East Coast, 1 a.m. in the West.

CBS had another dominant week in prime time, helped by the NCAA men’s basketball championship game between North Carolina and Illinois, which was seen by just under 24 million people on April 4.

ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” was the week’s most-watched program with 25.5 million viewers.

For the week, CBS averaged 12.4 million viewers in prime time (8.1 rating, 13 share) and won among the 18- to 49-year-old demographic sought by advertisers.

ABC averaged 9 million viewers (5.9, 10), Fox 8.4 million (5.3, 9), NBC 8.3 million (5.7, 9), UPN 3.1 million (2.1, 3) and the WB 2.9 million (2.0, 3).

A ratings point represents 1,096,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 109.6 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

The top 10 shows for the week ending Sunday: “Desperate Housewives,” ABC, 25.5 million viewers; “American Idol” (Tuesday), Fox, 24.5 million; “American Idol” (Wednesday), Fox, 24.1 million; “NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: North Carolina vs. Illinois,” CBS, 23.9 million; “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 22.6 million; “Survivor: Palau,” CBS, 19.8 million; “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 18 million; “Lost,” ABC, 17.1 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 15.7 million; “Without a Trace,” CBS, 15.5 million.