LOS ANGELES – It was a close race, but the rerun of a television crime drama drew a bigger audience than the late Princess Diana’s beyond-the-grave account of palace intrigue and personal despair.
Nearly 17 million US viewers tuned in Thursday to NBC’s highly promoted special featuring never-before-heard audio tapes Diana secretly recorded for a 1992 book that exposed the turmoil of her marriage to Prince Charles, Nielsen Media Research reported Friday. But part one of the two-hour documentary, “Princess Diana: The Secret Tapes,” finished second in total audience for its hour behind a repeat of the CBS missing-persons drama “Without a Trace,” which averaged 17.5 million viewers.Still, the saga of the late princess, hosted by Jane Pauley, scored the highest ratings in its hour for NBC’s target audience of adults aged 18 to 49 – the demographic most networks use as a benchmark of prime-time success.This week’s installment traced Diana’s early life through her courtship and wedding to Charles and the birth of their sons, William and Harry, presenting excerpts of an interview she secretly conducted through an intermediary in 1991 with biographer Andrew Morton.Tapes of that interview formed the basis for Morton’s 1992 international bestseller “Diana: Her True Story,” which demolished the myth of Diana’s fairy-tale marriage to Britain’s Prince of Wales and triggered a chain of events that led to their divorce in July of 1996.It was only after Diana’s 1997 death in a Paris car crash that Morton revealed she had collaborated with him on the biography.A revised version of the book, “Diana, Her True Story in Her Own Words,” was released after her death, containing edited transcripts of the recordings.But Thursday’s broadcast marked the public’s first chance to hear Diana’s exclusive account, in her own voice, of her life before becoming a princess, her long struggle with bulimia, her suicide attempts, the heartache over her husband’s infidelity, and her strained relations with other members of the royal family.Part two, which will include more excepts of the tapes, plus exclusive video footage of Diana never before aired in public, is slated for this Thursday.NBC said the video, shot between 1992 and 1993 by her speech coach, shows a more relaxed Diana rehearsing a speech and conducting a mock interview.Her young sons can be heard in the background.- Nampa-ReutersBut part one of the two-hour documentary, “Princess Diana: The Secret Tapes,” finished second in total audience for its hour behind a repeat of the CBS missing-persons drama “Without a Trace,” which averaged 17.5 million viewers.Still, the saga of the late princess, hosted by Jane Pauley, scored the highest ratings in its hour for NBC’s target audience of adults aged 18 to 49 – the demographic most networks use as a benchmark of prime-time success.This week’s installment traced Diana’s early life through her courtship and wedding to Charles and the birth of their sons, William and Harry, presenting excerpts of an interview she secretly conducted through an intermediary in 1991 with biographer Andrew Morton.Tapes of that interview formed the basis for Morton’s 1992 international bestseller “Diana: Her True Story,” which demolished the myth of Diana’s fairy-tale marriage to Britain’s Prince of Wales and triggered a chain of events that led to their divorce in July of 1996.It was only after Diana’s 1997 death in a Paris car crash that Morton revealed she had collaborated with him on the biography.A revised version of the book, “Diana, Her True Story in Her Own Words,” was released after her death, containing edited transcripts of the recordings.But Thursday’s broadcast marked the public’s first chance to hear Diana’s exclusive account, in her own voice, of her life before becoming a princess, her long struggle with bulimia, her suicide attempts, the heartache over her husband’s infidelity, and her strained relations with other members of the royal family.Part two, which will include more excepts of the tapes, plus exclusive video footage of Diana never before aired in public, is slated for this Thursday.NBC said the video, shot between 1992 and 1993 by her speech coach, shows a more relaxed Diana rehearsing a speech and conducting a mock interview.Her young sons can be heard in the background.- Nampa-Reuters
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