Wall-to-wall media coverage of Jackson receding

NEW YORK (AP) — Media coverage of Michael Jackson's death began receding following an extraordinary worldwide outpouring, with the shock wearing off and the pace of new developments slowing.

The Bernie Madoff sentencing, a presidential speech on energy, U.S. combat troops withdrawing from Iraqi cities and a cable news staple in Dallas — a high-speed car chase — took time away from the drumbeat of speculation Monday on the cause of Jackson's death and the future of his children.

Still, producers at CBS News were hurriedly putting together another prime-time special for Tuesday night on Jackson. NBC News bought the rights to journalist Martin Bashir's lengthy 2003 interview with Jackson for a Monday-night show, after MSNBC showed it several times over the weekend. And it continued to be the lead story on NBC's "Today" show and ABC's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday.

It was still a huge story internationally, where Jackson's death kept many Australians home on a Saturday night.

"We had a lot of viewers over the last three or four days and that suggests to us there's a tremendous amount of interest," said Bart Fader, senior vice president of current programming at CNN. "Journalistically, it's a fascinating story. He was one of the most famous people on the planet, and there are a lot of tentacles to the story."

Fader said he expected interest to remain high at least until there's a funeral for Jackson, which was still unscheduled.

CNN was one of the biggest beneficiaries of interest in the story, both right after it broke and throughout the weekend, when its audience remained at twice its normal level, he said. More than 2,200 viewers had also sent in their own video reports to the network, most offering personal recollections about the pop star.

More than 20 million people appeared to watch television in the United States specifically to find out about Jackson's death in the hours after the story broke last Thursday, according to Nielsen Media Research.

NBC had 5.8 million viewers for its two-hour prime-time special on the deaths of Jackson and actress Farrah Fawcett, according to Nielsen Media Research. A CBS News special at 10 p.m. on Jackson had 7.5 million viewers and an ABC Jackson recap had 5.7 million viewers at 9 p.m. (ABC's 10 p.m. hour on Fawcett, which had more advance notice, had 8.2 million viewers Thursday.)