CBS’s “NCIS” and “The Mentalist” were the number one- and number three-ranked primetime telecasts on broadcast TV for Tuesday, September 30, 2008.
ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” was sandwiched between the two, in second place.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
NCIS
CBS
17,470,000

2
DANCING W/STARS RESULTS
ABC
15,491,000

3
MENTALIST, THE
CBS
15,484,000

4
HOUSE
FOX
12,978,000

5
WITHOUT A TRACE
CBS
12,611,000

6
LAW AND ORDER:SVU
NBC
10,391,000

7
FRINGE
FOX
9,906,000

8
BIGGEST LOSER 6
NBC
7,390,000

9
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
ABC
5,960,000

10
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE TUE
UNI
5,280,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 30, 2008).

Overall, CBS won the night with an average audience of almost 15.2 million viewers, while FOX took second place with almost 11.5 million average viewers. ABC and NBC claimed third and fourth places with roughly 8.8 …

Trying to tap the Hispanic market? You’ll need to take nativity (country of origin), linguistic ability and the influence of children into account to shape an effective marketing campaign and media strategy.

Television audiences for four U.S. news networks spiked Monday afternoon after the House of Representatives voted to defeat Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s Wall Street bailout bill, Nielsen reported Wednesday. 
During the 2pm to 3pm (EST) daypart on Monday, the combined audiences for CNN, CNBC, FOX News, and MSNBC jumped by 71% over the average daily audience for that daypart between Sept. 1 and Sept. 28, according to Nielsen.  The 3pm to 4pm daypart saw an even larger jump (103%) over the average audience for the prior portion of September. 

Daypart
CNN, CNBC, FOX News, and MSNBC Combined TV Audience:
Sept. 1 – 28
(in 000s)
CNN, CNBC, FOX …

As previously reported, 31.6% of all television households nationwide tuned in for John McCain and Barack Obama’s first presidential debate.
A closer look at the minute-by-minute TV ratings, released Wednesday by Nielsen, reveals few peaks or drop-offs in household viewing during Friday’s debate.

 
 
 
 
 
 
According to Nielsen’s analysis, after an early ramp-up in the debate’s first five minutes, the percentage of households watching the debate held steady throughout the remainder of the telecast. 
The percentage of TV households watching the McCain-Obama debate peaked at 32.9% at 9:38pm EST Friday night. 
Debate viewing dropped off significantly after …

Columbus, OH is the number one sports town in the U.S., Scarborough Sports Marketing, a joint partnership with Nielsen and Arbitron, reported Wednesday.
Two-thirds (66%) of adults in Columbus reported being “very” interested in at least one of the 29 sports measured by Scarborough, including the major leagues, motor sports, college sports, minor leagues, and the Olympics, among others.
Boston (64%), Buffalo (63%), and Pittsburgh (63%) rounded out the top sports markets.