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.

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 …

ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” was the top-ranked primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Monday, September 29, 2008.  The show drew an average of almost 18.9 million viewers.
CBS’s “CSI: Miami” and “Two and a Half Men” claimed second and third places, with roughly 14.3 million and 13.6 million average viewers, respectively.
NBC’s “Chuck” and “Life,” which premiered Monday night, also made the top ten.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
DANCING WITH THE STARS
ABC
18,883,000

2
CSI: MIAMI
CBS
14,345,000

3
TWO AND A HALF MEN
CBS
13,577,000

4
HEROES
NBC
9,502,000

5
WORST WEEK
CBS
8,961,000

6
BIG BANG THEORY, THE
CBS
8,597,000

7
BOSTON LEGAL
ABC
8,562,000

8
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
CBS
8,724,000

9
CHUCK
NBC
6,835,000

10
LIFE 9/29(S)-09/29/2008
NBC
6,942,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 29, 2008)

Overall, ABC won …

According to data from across 11 networks, the first presidential debate on September 26 between John McCain and Barack Obama drew 52.4 million viewers.
The TV audience for the first presidential debate of the 2008 election was roughly 16% smaller than the audience for the first debate between President Bush and John Kerry during the 2004 election, which drew 62.5 million viewers on September 30, 2004. See more historical debate ratings.
ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Telefutura, Telemundo, BBC-America, CNBC, CNN, FOX  News Channel, and MSNBC aired live coverage of the McCain/Obama debate …

The combined overall household rating for Friday night’s presidential debate, in 55 of the 56 local television markets where Nielsen maintains electronic TV meters, was 34.7.
One rating point equals 1% of the total TV audience in a given market.
Coverage of the first presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain aired on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, CNN, Telemundo, TeleFutura, BBCA, Fox News, MSNBC, and C-Span.
Previously, Nielsen reported that the combined overall household rating for the top 55 local markets was 33.2. That rating excluded households that …

In August, videos at JohnMcCain.com attracted more female than male viewers for the first time, Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.
Women accounted for 58% of all unique video viewers on John McCain’s website last month — up from July and June, when they made up 48% and 37% of unique video viewers on the site.
The increase in women video viewers at JohnMcCain.com came during the same month that McCain selected Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.
Barack Obama’s website drew consistently large percentages of women video viewers during the summer months, …