‘Sopranos’ ends its season with punch

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.

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.