The New York Yankees boasted the most viewers per game during the regular season, while the Philadelphia Phillies’ seasonal viewership was up 25% over 2008.

Whether it was a cameo appearance by the Commander-In-Chief, the intrigue of perhaps the game’s best player performing in front of his home crowd, or the simple fact that it came right down to the final out, this year’s MLB All-Star Game was able to deliver the viewers.
An average of 14.6 million people watched the Midsummer Classic on Tuesday, the largest audience since the infamous 2002 game in Milwaukee that ended in a tie. Ratings in the game’s host city of St. Louis were especially high with 37% of all TV …

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman doesn’t need to pick a side in tonight’s do-or-die Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. After all, history says that Bettman and the NHL have already won – at least when it comes to TV viewers.
The Nielsen Company looked back at the four Stanley Cup Finals match-ups that have gone the full seven games since 2000 and in each case, Game 7 was a ratings windfall. For example, games one through six of the 2006 finals between Edmonton and Carolina averaged 2.4 million viewers. Game …

Matt Foran, Nielsen Sports
While controversy seems to follow Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez wherever they go, Nielsen Online buzz data reveals that, when it comes to buzz, steroids trump all of their on-field accomplishments. Of all the online discussion over the past year surrounding Manny Ramirez, Internet buzz peaked last week when it was announced Ramirez was suspended 50 games for using performance enhancing drugs.
Buzz For Manny Ramirez

Matt Foran, Nielsen Sports
With Major League Baseball’s opening day fast approaching, big league teams are looking to surpass last-season’s finish and to collect more eyeballs for their advertisers and corporate sponsors.  A look back at the stats from locally and nationally televised games from the 2008 season reveals impressive numbers and teams will hope to carry that momentum throughout the 2009 season… and perhaps the playoffs.
Regional Ratings:
Locally, Boston continued to show the power of Red Sox Nation, with a 10.1 HH AA% on NESN (New England Sports Network), the highest average …

The NBA may not draw the highest ratings for nationally televised games, but it’s second only to the NFL in delivering their core fans to the TV sets, according to a new study from Nielsen PreView.
The study, which analyzed viewership data for some of America’s favorite sports, uncovered that while Major League Baseball and NBA pull in comparable audiences for nationally televised broadcast, when compared to the actual fan base in the United States, the NBA significantly outperformed most of its peers; NBA games were able to get 7.8% of …

Was 2008 the best sports year ever?  At least in terms of viewer interest, there’s plenty of evidence to support that argument.  Consider these TV sports highlights from 2008:
-The most-watched global event ever (2008 Beijing Summer Olympics: 4.7 billion viewers)
-The most-watched Super Bowl ever (Giants-Patriots, Super Bowl XLII: 97.5 million viewers)
-The most-watched cable broadcast of all time (Cowboys-Eagles, Monday Night Football: 18.6 million viewers)
-The most-watched cable golf event of all time (Tiger vs. Rocco, U.S. Open Playoff: 4.8 million viewers)
-The most-watched cable baseball game ever (Red Sox-Rays, ALCS Game 7: …

The conclusion of the Phillies v. Rays World Series drew half of all Philadelphia households (51.8%) and almost one-third (32.4%) of all Tampa Bay households.
The game aired on FOX Wednesday night, between 8:30pm and 10:15pm EDT.  
In comparison, just 29% of Philly households and 23.4% of Tampa Bay households watched Barack Obama’s infomercial in the half hour leading up to what proved to be the Phillies-Rays’ final game.
The half-hour political simulcast — the first of its kind, since Ross Perot ran a political telecast on the eve of Election Day in 1996 — aired on CBS, …

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 …

Updated: The conclusion of Game 5 of the MLB World Series, in which the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1, drew 19.8 million average viewers Wednesday night — the series’ largest TV audience. 
The first half of Game 5, on Monday night, drew 13.2 million average TV viewers — before a rain delay suspended play in the bottom of the sixth inning.

DATE
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2008
(GAME 5 – conclusion)
FOX
19,844,000

MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2008
(GAME 5 – suspended in 6th inning by rain delay)
FOX
13,237,000

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2008
(GAME 4)
FOX
15,479,000

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2008
(GAME 3)
FOX
9,836,000

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2008
(GAME …