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, NBC, FOX, UNIVISION, MSNBC, and NY1 between 8pm and 8:30pm EST.

In the top 56 local television markets where Nielsen maintains electronic TV meters, 21.7% of all households watched Obama’s telecast.

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.

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.