NFC Rival Philadelphia Eagles were second in terms of total buzz volume, due in part to their signing of Michael Vick, who was atop the list of NFL player buzz.  This summer saw his release from prison, his reinstatement to the league, and his signing with the Eagles, and fans not shy about voicing their opinion on both sides of the issue.

In terms of television viewership, Pittsburgh, which kicked off this year’s season with Tennessee, continued to live up to its reputation as a football-crazed city, with the Steelers leading all teams in local markets ratings last season on their way to the Super Bowl. During 16 regular season games, the six-time Super Bowl champs were watched on average by 36.8% of Pittsburgh households.

[update: For the season opener on 9/10/09 - the Steelers' hometown viewership was 49.6%]

In about the time it takes to watch the Super Bowl- with its 30-minute halftime and extended commercial breaks- fans can enjoy two championship-caliber games.

A Nielsen duplication study reveals that 66% of the households that tuned in to last year’s Conference Championships saw BOTH games, with 85% of the AFC’s audience also watching a portion of the NFC game, and 75% of the NFC audience watching the earlier AFC game.

This year’s matchups have their work cut out to top last year’s 98 million gross viewers for Giants-Packers and Chargers-Patriots – the most for any Conference Championship Sunday since 1982. Individually, the NFC and AFC Conference Championships were the  2^nd and 3^rd highest rated television broadcasts of the year, ahead of the Olympics and behind only Super Bowl XLII, the second most-watched US broadcast of all time.

The AFC Championship Game on CBS features the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers, fierce AFC North rivals, who last met up in week 15 for a matchup that was the second-highest rated regular season game of the year for both the Pittsburgh and Baltimore markets.

The NFC Championship will also be a rematch of an earlier game this season. The Eagles and Cardinals met up on the Thanksgiving Night game on the NFL Network, receiving a 1.9 rating nationally and 3.8 million viewers – numbers which will surely be dwarfed by this coming Sunday’s audience

The Eagles and Steelers, in particular, are no strangers to the national stage.

The Eagles, participants in five of the last eight NFC championships, have a strong following across the country. And this season they played in the most watched cable event of all time (vs. Cowboys on MNF, 9/15/08).

Meanwhile, the Steelers are as popular as ever with four primetime games, and seven 4:15pm games this season. Most notably, the Week 14 FOX national game, featuring Dallas-Pittsburgh in 90% of the country, was the most-watched NFL broadcast of the regular season, receiving a 15.6 rating and 25.7 million viewers.

This past weekend, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama faced some tough competition in Pennsylvania. 

With the Phillies playing in the World Series and college and pro football games on both Saturday and Sunday, there was no shortage of TV sports options for politics-weary Pennsylvanians, looking for a break from presidential campaigning.

The action started on Saturday in western Pennsylvania, as the Penn State Nittany Lions took on their Big 10 Rival, the Ohio State Buckeyes.  In nearby Pittsburgh, 20.8% of local TV households watched on ABC as Penn State maintained its undefeated status.

On Sunday, 44.1% of Pittsburgh households — the highest local market rating earned by any NFL game so far this season — tuned in to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the New York Giants.  Sunday’s TV audience topped the Pittsburgh market’s previous season high NFL rating of 41.1, earned when the Steelers played their cross-state rival, the Philadelphia Eagles, on Sunday, Sept. 21.

Across the state in Philadelphia, baseball fans were glued to their tubes this weekend for Games 3 and 4 of the MLB World Series.  On Saturday night, 28.1% of local Philadelphia households tuned in for Game 3, with 93% of that audience staying with the game, through multiple rain delays, until its conclusion at 1:48am EST. 

Undetered by a late night of baseball, Philadelphians were back in front of their televisions Sunday afternoon for the Eagles vs. Atlanta Falcons football game, which earned a 27.9 local household rating.  The TV sports marathon continued into the evening, when 38.9% of local Philadelphia households tuned in to watch Game 4 of the World Series.

Stay tuned on NielsenWire for daily updates on World Series national TV ratings.