The conclusion of Game 5 of the MLB World Series, which aired on FOX, was the number one-ranked primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Wednesday, October 29, 2008.
CBS’s “Criminal Minds” and “CSI: NY” rounded out the top three.
NBC’s and CBS’s telecasts of Sen. Barack Obama’s half-hour political infomercial also made the top 10.

Rank
Program
Network
Viewers (P2+)

1
FOX WRLD SERIES GM5 CONCL(S)-10/29/2008
FOX
19,844,000

2
CRIMINAL MINDS
CBS
13,966,000

3
CSI: NY
CBS
13,754,000

4
FOX WRLD SRS GM5 CONCLPRE(S)-10/29/2008
FOX
12,080,000

5
FOX WRLD SRS GM5 CONCLPST(S)-10/29/2008
FOX
10,538,000

6
OBAMA: PAID POLITICAL-NBC(S)-10/29/2008
NBC
9,911,000

7
OBAMA: PAID POLITICAL-CBS(S)-10/29/2008
CBS
8,602,000

8
DEAL OR NO DEAL-WED
NBC
8,337,000

9
PRIVATE PRACTICE
ABC
7,933,000

10
OLD CHRISTINE
CBS
7,607,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (October 29, 2008).

Overall, FOX won the night with an average …

The combined overall household rating for Senator Barack Obama’s Wednesday night infomercial, in the top 56 local television markets where Nielsen maintains electronic TV meters, was 21.7.
Obama’s simulcast is the first to be aired by a presidential candidate since Ross Perot ran a political telecast on the eve of Election Day in 1996.  That program was watched by 16.8% of all households nationwide.
Ross Perot also ran a series of 15 political telecasts during the 1992 presidential election.
In comparison, the final debate between the two presidential candidates received a 38.3 household rating in the top …

Yesterday, Sen. John McCain continued to close the gap between his TV advertising and Sen. Barack Obama’s in seven key swing states: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
On Tuesday, Oct. 28, McCain ran 1,543 ad units in those seven states — up 12.9% from the previous day, in which he ran 1,366 ads.
Obama continues to out-advertise McCain, but in comparison, he boosted his ad units by just 8.7%, from 2,906 units on Monday to 3,160 units on Tuesday, Oct. 28. 
On Monday, Obama ran 113% more ad units than McCain, but by …

Yesterday Sen. John McCain boosted his TV advertising units in seven key swing states — Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, closing the gap between his advertising and Sen. Barack Obama’s.
On Sunday, Oct. 26, McCain ran just 331 TV ad units in those seven states — 308% fewer than the 1,350 ad units Obama ran that day.  
But on Monday, Obama’s lead in these key battleground states shrank to 113% — or a margin of 1,528 ad units, after McCain’s campaign increased the number of TV ad units it ran in those states by 308%, to 1,353 units. 
In comparison, …

Senator Barack Obama’s advertising in seven key swing states continues to surpass the number of ad units run by his presidential opponent, Sen. John McCain.
In Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, Obama placed 155% more ad units (62,022 vs. 24,273) than McCain between October 6 and October 26, 2008.
As of October 22, Obama had placed 150% more ad units (53,049 vs. 21,106) than McCain in those key battleground states.
Obama’s advertising continues to be heaviest in Florida, where he ran 18,909 ads between October 6 and October 26, outpacing …

Good news for Sen. John McCain’s campaign: cheap, but effective TV advertising options abound, according to a new report by Nielsen PreView.
Chief among these thrifty advertising alternatives – the auto-themed Speed Channel, which Republicans are 52% more likely to watch, compared with the average American.
In comparison, Republican voters are 48% more likely to watch FOX News and 33% more likely to watch Country Music Television. 
The takeaway: well-placed cable advertising can reach core Republican constituents at a more favorable CPM.

In the home stretch leading up to the presidential election, Sen. Barack Obama is easily out-advertising his presidential opponent, Sen. John McCain.
In seven key swing states — Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, Obama placed 150% more ad units (53,049 v. 21,106) than McCain between October 6 and October 22, 2008.
Obama’s advertising has been most prolific in Florida, where he ran 15,887 ads between October 6 and October 22, 2008, outpacing McCain’s 4,662 ads by 240%.

Online buzz surrounding Senators Barack Obama and John McCain remained strong during the three presidential debates in September and October, but voters’ engagement in the debate TV broadcasts declined significantly after the first debate, according to an analysis released Tuesday by Nielsen IAG and Nielsen Online.
“Engagement” refers to the amount of attention paid to a television program by the average viewer.  Nielsen measures TV engagement by questioning a representative panel of viewers about their recall of specific telecasts’ content.
Online consumer discussion of both candidates spiked before and after each of the four …

With the presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama touting record political contributions for the month of September, Nielsen Claritas has taken a look at the source of Sen. Obama’s and Sen. McCain contributions through the lens of lifestyle attributes and socio-economic data, such as income, age, occupation, education, and household composition.
Nielsen Claritas’s PRIZM system breaks down the U.S. population into 66 segments based on these attributes. 
Obama leads McCain in dollars and the number of donations received from the 10 PRIZM segments of the U.S. population that have made the most political contributions through …

The final presidential debate between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama drew 56.5 million U.S. viewers Wednesday night, Nielsen reported Thursday.
The TV audience for the senators’ third meeting edged past that of their first debate at the end of September, which drew 52.4 million viewers, but was easily surpassed by the audience of 63.2 million that tuned in for the second presidential debate last week.
During the previous presidential campaign, 51.2 million viewers tuned in for President Bush and John Kerry’s third debate on Oct. 13, 2004.  (View complete historical debate ratings.)
As …