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Jackson memorial draws huge TV audience

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By WALT BELCHER wbelcher

@tampatrib.com

Published: July 9, 2009

The Michael Jackson memorial service carried on 19 networks Tuesday drew just more than 31 million television viewers in the United States, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Millions more watched it online and in workplaces (which aren't measured by Nielsen).

The television audience was close to the 33.3 million that watched Princess Diana's funeral in 1997 and the 35 million that watched the burial of President Ronald Reagan in 2004.

In the Tampa Bay area, 357,000 viewers watching 12 networks were logged by Nielsen.

Most watched Fox coverage on WTVT, Channel 13, (62,000) and CNN (61,000).

NBC coverage on WFLA, Channel 8, averaged 55,000; CBS coverage on WTSP, Channel 10, averaged 43,000; and ABC coverage on WFTS, Channel 28, averaged 37,000.

This is the first celebrity memorial service watched by millions online. ABC News Digital reported nearly 6 million live video streams on ABCNEWS.com and across its partner sites, including Yahoo!, Verizon, Charter, AT&T and RCN. CNN reports that its Web site logged 10.6 million live video streams during the day.

BIG BROTHER: CBS' "Big Brother" returns at 8 tonight with Casey Turner, a 41-year-old St. Petersburg fifth-grade teacher, in the cast.

Turner, a graduate of Lakeland's Lake Gibson High School, also moonlights as DJ Mingle Mixx at Gators Cafe in Treasure Island, where he hosts bikini contests. His family and friends will gather there tonight for a watching party.

Turner, who has been sequestered since June 26, calls himself a "hip-hop redneck" who is "looking forward to meeting some cool people."

A serious fan of "Big Brother," he has a wife, Janice, and two children - including a 9-month-old son and a 19-year-old son from a previous marriage.

With the cameras surrounding him at all times, he told CBS that he is nervous about his nose-picking habit. He is the oldest contestant and stands to win $500,000 if the he is the last standing out of the 13 housemates.

NEW REPORTER: Alan Cohn, an award-winning investigative journalist, will join "ABC Action News" on WFTS, Channel 28 on Aug. 3. News Director Doug Culver says Cohn specializes in hard-hitting, high-impact stories.

Cohn replaces four-time Emmy award-winning investigative reporter Matthew Schwartz, who left the station earlier this year.

Cohn was a reporter for WTNH-TV in Connecticut where he won a 2007 George Foster Peabody Award for uncovering the installation of defective parts on Black Hawk helicopters manufactured by Connecticut- based Sikorsky Aircraft. He also has won Emmys and a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting.

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