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‘Sopranos’ ends its season with punch

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The major networks’ onslaught of holiday specials officially began last week, but it was a somewhat less festive show on pay cable -- “The Sopranos” -- that relatively packed the biggest punch, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

HBO channels totaled 12.5 million viewers during Sunday’s extended season finale, about a million below the record the pay service set when the show began its fourth season in September. That was still good enough to win the time period -- an impressive feat, given that HBO is received by only about a third of U.S. homes -- although it’s fair to note that NBC’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” was a rerun.

With such specials as “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” augmenting series regulars, NBC won its second week this season in overall viewing and enjoyed its widest victory margin among the young adults that advertisers seek.

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ABC delivered the biggest newsmagazine audience in more than a year -- since then-congressman Gary Condit spoke with Connie Chung -- with Diane Sawyer’s Whitney Houston interview, which ran against a rerun of “The West Wing.”

Buoyed by the Steven Spielberg miniseries “Taken,” the Sci-Fi Channel for the first time ranked as the week’s most-watched basic cable network, averaging 3.3 million viewers. MTV’s “The Osbournes,” meanwhile, dropped 35% below its second-season premiere, to 4.2 million viewers on Dec. 3.

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