Diana 1961-1997: The reaction - All America stays up for the replay

How much is too much? was the question that cropped up repeatedly on yesterday's prime-time television talk shows and in the opinion columns of America's voluminous Sunday papers. The answer was summed up in a throw-away line from the host of perhaps the most prestigious talk show, Meet The Press: "... And later, Mother Teresa of Calcutta.'

As producers and editors concurred, their problem was akin to that of the British Royal Family: they made their plans, then they made them again in the light of demand. Over last week, most particularly on Saturday and Sunday, the pace was dictated by the public - and where the US media were concerned, the public just couldn't get enough of Diana.

Millions of Americans - the exact number has not yet been established - rose in the early hours of Saturday morning, or just never went to bed - to view the funeral live. By Friday night, several networks had decided that those who slept through their alarm clocks would still want to watch. On Saturday morning, the live relays, without - almost unprecedented for America - commercial breaks, were followed almost immediately by full, uncut, replays of the funeral. Despite promises from several channels that normal programmes would resume - .that did not happen.

Even channels not known for live or extensive coverage of such events - Fox News was one such, the Arts and Entertainment cable channel was another - joined the mainstream networks, CNN and even C-Span (which generally broadcasts the US Congress proceedings and related matters) - in broadcasting the funeral live. Several took the BBC coverage in its entirety, but even the majority which did not applied unaccustomed restraint during the service. Commentators such as Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and Barbara Walters refrained from comment during the funeral, returning to the import of Earl Spencer's speech only afterwards.

Surprisingly, perhaps, in a country which is determinedly republican, the political significance of Earl Spencer's criticism of the Windsors took second place in the US media to his vilification of the paparazzi. Their alleged role in Diana's death and a possible backlash against tabloid journalism in the US remained central to the US commentaries.

By yesterday, it was apparent that the extent of Diana coverage here had divided the US media establishment. Some suggested that the coverage was excessive, mawkish and at times bathetic. But one insight was given in a report from the Washington Post, where a reporter recounted discussion at the paper last week about whether coverage should be scaled down. A few "white males" had argued for doing so, but found themselves comprehensively outvoted with women and most passionately from ethnic minority women in the forefront of the counter-argument. Which reinforces another aspect of the response to Diana's death in the US. Women, of all ages and ethnic groups, were prominent among the mourners. Women also turned out in large numbers at the Washington memorial service at the National Cathedral on Saturday, where one of the tributes was given by Katharine Graham, chairman of the Washington Post.

Among Mrs Graham's memories was an episode in which she heard an inveterate gambler ask Diana whether she gambled: "Not with cards," she was heard to reply, "but with life."