CBS’s season premieres of “Ghost Whisperer” and “Numbers” were the number one- and number two-ranked primetime telecasts on broadcast TV for Friday, October 3, 2008.  “Ghost Whisperer” drew roughly 9.4 million average viewers, while “Numbers” drew an average audience of 8.2 million viewers.
ABC’s “20/20” rounded out the top three, with just over 6.8 million average viewers.
Two other premieres, CBS’s “The Ex List” (6.8 million viewers) and ABC’s “Supernanny” (4.2 million viewers), also made the top ten.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
GHOST WHISPERER
CBS
9,447,000

2
NUMB3RS
CBS
8,212,000

3
20/20-FRI
ABC
6,840,000

4
EX LIST, THE
CBS
6,793,000

5
DEAL OR NO DEAL-FRI
NBC
6,349,000

6
SMARTER THAN 5TH GRADER
FOX
5,956,000

7
LIFE
NBC
5,543,000

8
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE FRI
UNI
4,637,000

9
DON’T FORGET …

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” the new Disney film featuring conversing canines, took in an estimated $29 million over the weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 
The total was Disney’s biggest October opening, easily surpassing opening weekend earnings for “Ladder 49″ ($22.1 million) in 2004.
DreamWorks/Paramount’s thriller “Eagle Eye” had another impressive showing in its second weekend, taking in an estimated $17.7 million. 
Below are box-office totals for the weekend of October 3-5, 2008, from Nielsen EDI.

RANK
(by gross earnings)
FILM
STUDIO
WEEKEND EARNINGS
(Oct. 3-5)
GROSS EARNINGS
($ MILLIONS)

1
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
 WALT DISNEY STUDIOS
$29,300,465
$29.3

2
Eagle Eye
DREAMWORKS/PARAMOUNT
$17,709,817
$54.6

3
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
SONY PICTURES
$11,311,751
$11.3

4
Nights In Rodanthe
WARNER BROS.
$7,368,259
$25.1

5
Appaloosa
WARNER BROS.
$5,050,310
$5.6

6
Lakeview Terrace
SONY PICTURES
$4,561,227
$32.2

7
Burn After …

With the U.S. financial crisis hanging in the balance, the first debate between Barack Obama and John McCain – originally scheduled for Friday — has taken on unusual importance.  But, how will this first presidential duel of the 2008 election compare with the most-watched debates of the last half-century?
Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan’s October 28, 1980 debate claimed the largest television audience — 80.6 million viewers — since 1976, the first year that Nielsen collected TV viewership data for presidential debates. 
George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot’s October 15, 1992 debate (69.9 …

Record high fuel prices, soaring commodities costs, and declining consumer confidence have changed the way U.S. consumers shop, according to a recent Nielsen consumer survey.  
Results from the survey indicate that 63% of U.S. consumers have reduced their household spending this year. 
The findings also suggest that consumers will continue to combine shopping trips, eat at home, and seek out at-home entertainment.

It may come as no surprise, but now the proof has arrived: males under 25 and females over 25 have almost polar opposite tastes in movies. 
That’s one of many findings from Nielsen PreView’s new Movie Partnership Calculator, which allows marketers to match upcoming movie titles with specific demographic targets.  The calculator uses survey data profiles from Nielsen Entertainment’s MarketNavigator to identify movies that are likely to resonate with key demographic groups.
For now, mothers and their young sons may struggle to agree on movies, but there’s hope for date night.  According to Nielsen’s …

Google and Yahoo! were again the number one- and number two-ranked Web brands in August, according to Nielsen Online.

Rank
Web Brand
Unique Audience
(in 000s)
Time Per Person
(hh:mm:ss)

1
Google
123,690
1:25:18

2
Yahoo!
117,702
3:22:31

3
MSN/Windows Live
103,953
2:21:25

4
Microsoft
93,558
12:38:39

5
AOL Media Network
93,070
3:33:46

6
YouTube
75,442
1:01:01

7
Fox Interactive Media
70,696
1:54:24

8
eBay
55,842
1:52:01

9
Wikipedia
52,987
0:21:24

10
Apple
48,766
1:10:42

Source: The Nielsen Company (August 1, 2008 – August 31, 2008).

On Tuesday night, 69.9 million viewers tuned in to watch the sole vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.
The Biden-Palin matchup set a new V.P. debate TV audience record, beating the previous high of 56.7 million viewers set by the debate between Rep. Geraldine Ferraro and then-V.P. George H.W. Bush in 1984*. 
Biden and Palin’s debate also surpassed the first presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, which drew an audience of 52.4 million last Friday night.
During the last presidential election in 2004, the vice presidential debate between V.P. Dick Cheney and Sen. …

The combined overall household rating for Thursday night’s vice presidential debate, in 55 of the 56 local television markets where Nielsen maintains electronic TV meters, was 45.0.
One rating point equals 1% of the total TV audience in a given market.
The Baltimore market had the largest TV audience, with a household rating of 59.1, while the Los Angeles market had the lowest household rating: 34.4.

In the game one matchups for the National League and American League division playoffs, the Chicago Cubs v. Los Angeles Dodgers game drew the largest TV audience: nearly 5.4 million viewers.

Game
Network
Viewers P2+

CUBS- DODGERS
TBSC
5,381,000

RED SOX-ANGELS
TBSC
4,442,000

BREWERS-PHILLIES
TBSC
2,764,000

WHITE SOX-RAYS
TBSC
2,610,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (October 3, 2008).

Workplace traffic to U.S.-based sports websites was up by 26% in August, compared with traffic to online sports destinations in August 2007, Nielsen Online reported Thursday.
The Beijing Olympics and the start of fall football season may have had something to do with the spike in traffic, Jon Gibs, vice president, media analytics, Nielsen Online, noted.
“With broad interest in the Olympics, and the ramp up of the college and professional football seasons, August was a busy month for online sports fans,” Gibs said.  “The Web offered 24/7 access to news, results …