If it bleeds, it does indeed lead.

NBC's evening newscast shot up to its best ratings in more than a month, despite of and arguably because of its release and broadcast of the Virginia Tech shooter's videotaped ramblings.

For the week ended Friday, the NBC Nightly News averaged 8.6 million viewers, up 5 percent from the previous ratings period, per Nielsen Media Research stats. It edged its chief rival, ABC's World News Tonight (8.5 million), and outdistanced perennial laggard, the CBS Evening News (6.6 million).

In cable, Fox News and CNN saw their numbers surge on Apr. 16, the day Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho stalked his campus, killing 33 people, including himself, in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.

The Apr. 16 edition of The O'Reilly Factor led the way for Fox News, with 3.5 million viewers. Likewise, that night's edition of Larry King Live topped all CNN broadcasts, with 2.6 million viewers.

In the broadcast network race, NBC's was the only newscast to score more viewers than the previous week—ABC was down a touch, CBS was even.

NBC became a part of the story last Wednesday when it received a package Cho had mailed the network during a break in his killing spree.

NBC turned over the materials, including a DVD, to authorities, who per the network's own news Website, MSNBC, found "little investigative value" in them. The network, nonetheless, broadcast Cho's random rantings, and made the clips available to fellow news organizations, which also aired them.

A day later, under-fire networks expressed regrets, with Fox News the first to say it would no longer air the videos. For its part, NBC said it would "severely limit" their rebroadcast.

On Tuesday's Oprah Winfrey Show, per reports, NBC News president Steve Capus referred to the initial decision to air the clips as "good journalism."

If ratings are any indication, viewers didn't disagree.

Here are some other ratings highlights from the TV week ended Sunday:

• The ratings for the CBS Evening News, starring pricey Katie Couric, might have been flat, but its ratings are flat down from last year, when non-pricey Bob Schieffer anchored. FoxNews.com's Roger Friedman reports Schieffer might have been the "main source" for a Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer article that deigned Couric's tenure "an expensive, unfixable mistake."  
• In less-consequential disasters, Sanjaya Malakar's American Idol ouster proved to be the Fox show's biggest draw in weeks (first place, 28.9 million viewers).
• A month-long layoff didn't seem to harm ABC's Grey's Anatomy (fourth place, 21.1 million). Not so for network sibling Ugly Betty (25th place, 9.5 million), which has been outlasted by CBS' steady Survivor: Fiji (ninth place, 13.3 million).
• Monday's Dancing with the Stars (fifth place, 18.9 million) is tripping up Monday's Deal or No Deal (17th place, 11.2 million).
• ABC's Desperate Housewives (seventh place, 15.9 million) is tripping up itself, recording a new all-time low in viewers, two weeks after recording its previous all-time low.
• How many glowing adjectives did Fox use to describe the premiere of its Cannonball Run­-styled thriller­ series, Drive (64th place, 5.7 million)? Um, none.
• CBS' Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, Crossroads: A Story of Forgiveness (20th place, 10.7 million), was a relatively big hit among overall viewers, meaning overall older viewers. It didn't crack the Top 25 among 18- to 49-year-olds.
• The CW's America's Next Top Model (72nd place, 5.2 million) did its thing. 
• Smallville (88th place, 4 million) and Gilmore Girls (91st place, 3.793 million) kept the CW from being otherwise distinguished by Friday Night Smackdown (92nd place, 3.785 million).
• Does ESPN air too many New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox games? No, according to the 5.5 million who made the teams' Sunday Night Baseball contest cable's second-biggest draw.

Overall, Idol and House (third place, 22.4 million) led Fox to wins in total viewers (10.3 million) and the 18-to-49 demographic.

ABC rode Dancing with the Stars' tux tails to a second-place finish among younger viewers. It finished third in total viewers, averaging 9.5 million.

With its top crime shows in repeats, CBS fell to second in viewers (9.6 million), and third in the demo.

NBC (6.2 million--its least watched week on record) was feeling the heat from the CW (3 million).

Apparently, there are only so many rewards from the practice of good journalism.

Here's a look at the 10 most watched prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 28.9 million viewers
2. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 26.5 million viewers
3. House, Fox, 22.4 million viewers
4. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 21.1 million viewers
5. Dancing with the Stars (Monday), ABC, 18.9 million viewers
6. Dancing with the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 16.5 million viewers
7. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 15.9 million viewers
8. CSI: Miami, CBS, 15.4 million viewers
9. Survivor: Fiji, CBS, 13.3 million viewers
10. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 13 million viewers