Phil Leotardo's mind wasn't the only one bent by that anti-shocker of a Sopranos finale.

The fourth-largest audience ever for an episode of the HBO drama was good enough to best nearly everything on television this past week, according to Nielsen Media Research, with The Sopranos' swan song pulling in 11.9 million viewers, second only to last Tuesday's premiere of America's Got Talent.

Almost 13 million tuned in to check out Sharon Osbourne's judging prowess, as she joined David Hasselhoff, Piers Morgan and new host Jerry Springer for the second season of the NBC series, which has already seen a pair of pec-flexing brothers, a nine-year-old cheerleader and an Elvis impersonator come and go. (The news was undoubtedly welcome to the once pround Peacock network, which has been mired in a record-setting ratings slump.)

While The Sopranos didn't rate its biggest audience of all time, with that honor going to its fifth season premiere back in March 2004 (12.1 million viewers), it was the top-rated episode since then and its domination of the small screen this past week was quite a feat for a network that is only in about 30 million U.S. homes, as opposed to 111 million for the broadcast nets.

And, considering HBO shows multiple repeats of its original series throughout the week on several different channels, it's hard to gauge just how many people will have watched (or re-watched, considering the double-takes) in the end.

On Sunday itself, The Sopranos topped both game two of the NBA Finals on ABC (8.6 million, 15th place) and the 61st Annual Tony Awards on CBS (6.2 million, 29th place).

Daring to get close to Tony and his dwindling crew were a repeat of Two and Half Men and So You Think You Can Dance's Thursday results show, the latter of which pulled in 11.1 million viewers, the largest audience in series history.

The Wednesday installment of the happy-footed Fox competition was also the most-watched show of the week among the advertiser-important 18 to 49-year-old demographic (5.8 million), giving Fox a win in the demo for the week and proving that there's life—and a happy one at that—after American Idol.

Add to it the continued high achievement of the Mark Burnett-produced Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, which rounded out the Nielsens' top 10 with 9.3 million viewers, and Fox is going to have an unusually fun summer vacation.

Other highlights:

• HBO's anticipated post-Sopranos swoon appears to have gotten an early start. The surf-happy family drama John from Cincinnati lost more than 8 million viewers from its Sopranos lead-in Sunday, premiering in front of just 3.4 million sets of eyeballs.
• The Starter Wife was looking a little peaked, with Thursday's installment of the six-episode USA series pulling in 3.9 million, a drop-off of 1.5 million from its premiere last week.
• Lifetime's Army Wives held fast, however, with its second episode (3.3 million) down only a couple hundred thousand viewers from its premiere.
• Kathy Griffin might have to change the name of her series if she attracts any more rabid fans, as viewership (1.02 million) for the season-three premiere of Bravo's Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List was up 53 percent over last season's premiere.
• Cameron Diaz's "friend," Criss Angel, conjured 2.7 million viewers for the season three opener of Criss Angel Mindfreak last Tuesday on A&E.
• People love Tyler Perry! The mind behind Madea's Family Reunion and Diary of a Mad Black Woman hit it big on TBS Wednesday with back-to-back episodes of his first-run syndicated sitcom House of Payne (5.2 million tuned in at 9 p.m., with another 600,000 people joining them for the second half hour).
• More people want to be pirates than junior Spielbergs. While Mark Burnett's Pirate Master on CBS netted 6.2 million viewers (30th place), his Fox filmmaking competition On the Lot continues to tank at the box office (3.2 million, 89th place).
• ABC and Simon Cowell didn't reinvent the wheel with American Inventor, but its second season premiere attracted 7.9 million, good enough for 19th place.
• A repeat of Shark (9.3 million) devoured its so-called toughest competition, a brand-new episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (4.4 million), with people perhaps feeling squeamish about making eye contact with the biggest prime-time belly flop of 2006-07.
• The debut of CBS' British import 'toon Creature Comforts attracted 6.2 million viewers in its Monday slot, finishing just behind ABC's Wife Swap (6.6 million) but well ahead of  NBC's coverage of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators (2.9 million).
• While CBS was still all over the top 10 with repeats of CSI, CSI: Miami and NCIS, basic cable is coming to save the day, as far as quality newness is concerned. A sampling: The fourth season of FX's Rescue Me premieres Wednesday, a third season of TNT's The Closer kicks off June 18, and USA will have more Monk starting July 13.

As for total viewers, CSI repeats still go a long way in this business, with CBS leading the pack for the second week in a row (5.4 million), followed by Fox (4.3 million), ABC (4.2 million) and NBC (3.8 million). Univision continued to trounce the CW, 2.2 million to 1.5 million. In the demo, CBS and Fox traded places.

Here's a rundown of the most watched prime-time (broadcast) programs for the week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research:

1. America's Got Talent, NBC, 13 million viewers
2. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 11.3 million viewers
3. So You Think You Can Dance (Thursday), Fox, 11.1 million viewers
4. So You Think You Can Dance (Wednesday), Fox, 10.3 million viewers
5. Deal or No Deal (Tuesday), NBC, 10.1 million viewers
6. CSI, CBS, 10 million viewers
7. CSI: Miami, CBS, 9.49 million viewers
8. 60 Minutes, CBS, 9.46 million viewers
9. NCIS, CBS, 9.4 million viewers
10. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, Fox, 9.3 million viewers