According to Nielson ratings, more than 31 million people in the US alone tuned in to watch the public memorial service of Michael Jackson at the Staples Center yesterday morning (or afternoon, depending on where in the US you are) … making it the second most watched funeral in US history (behind the funeral of Princess Diana). Millions more watched the broadcast in other parts of the world and online … a moment that was shared pretty much everyone who had even heard of Michael Jackson in his 40-year career in entertainment. Now that his memorial service is over, we can begin to move on and talk about other things rather than the death of Michael Jackson (tho, with the official cause of death yet to be determined, we will likely be hearing more on this subject in the weeks to come) … but I think it’s apropos for one more post on how fans the world over mourned the death of the King of Pop yesterday. Here are photos from Detroit, MI (site of Motown and the African American Museum of History), NYC, NY (Times Square), the Neverland Ranch (in Los Olivos, CA) and downtown LA of fans paying tribute to Michael Jackson yesterday:

More than 31 million people tuned in to television coverage of Michael Jackson’s memorial service yesterday, and millions more watched on computers at work, in parks and elsewhere. Measuring viewership on 18 networks that carried the live coverage, 1-4 p.m., the ratings service Nielsen calculated the average audience at 31.14 million viewers. That makes it the second most-watched daytime funeral Nielsen has ever measured. Princess Diana’s funeral, which began at 6 a.m., drew an estimated 33.25 million viewers spread across eight networks on Sept. 6, 1997. Former President Ronald Reagan’s mid-day funeral drew 20.8 million people on June 11, 2004. A prime-time program on Reagan’s burial that same evening drew an estimated 35.07 million viewers. The remarkable Nielsen numbers for yesterday’s Jackson memorial slightly undercount the total viewership, since Nielsen didn’t release figures for local stations such as WPIX/Ch. 11 or cable networks like NY1 and Current. On-line viewership also soared yesterday, perhaps reflecting fans who were at work during the service and watched it on their computers. MSNBC reported nearly 19 million online streams, topping the network’s previous high set this January during President Barack Obama’s inauguration. CNN said it had the second largest streaming day in its history, with 10.5 million streams in all and 4.4 million during the memorial service. The network recorded 26.9 million streams on Inauguration Day. ABC News Digital reported close to six million live streams of the memorial service on abcnews.com and its partner sites. The coverage was also a hit abroad. United Kingdom rating services earlier reported that six million British viewers watched the Jackson service.

Despite his many shortcomings, Michael Jackson will predominately be remembered as a huge iconic figure in the history of pop culture. His achievements far outweighed his missteps and no matter what anyone, me included, thought of the man when he was at his lowest, saddest point of life … it is very easy to take stock in his genius contributions to the world. There will forever be haters, naysayers and all around pitifully negative people in the world … sometimes, we are all guilty of such things … but if it’s one thing that I think we should all take stock in it is that the world is a better place because Michael Jackson lived. His music, his philanthropy, his overall contributions to our culture. I contend that even his most virulent detractors were fans of his at one time or another … and whether they choose to acknowledge that part of themselves or not, he will always be remembered for the good. There will never, ever again be another Michael Jackson. Never.

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