As previously reported, 31.6% of all television households nationwide tuned in for John McCain and Barack Obama’s first presidential debate.
A closer look at the minute-by-minute TV ratings, released Wednesday by Nielsen, reveals few peaks or drop-offs in household viewing during Friday’s debate.

 
 
 
 
 
 
According to Nielsen’s analysis, after an early ramp-up in the debate’s first five minutes, the percentage of households watching the debate held steady throughout the remainder of the telecast. 
The percentage of TV households watching the McCain-Obama debate peaked at 32.9% at 9:38pm EST Friday night. 
Debate viewing dropped off significantly after …

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
DANCING WITH THE STARS
ABC
21,338,000

2
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
ABC
18,684,000

3
GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM
ABC
18,469,000

4
DANCING W/STARS SP-9/23(S)
ABC
18,302,000

5
NCIS
CBS
18,026,000

6
NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
NBC
17,340,000

7
CSI: MIAMI
CBS
17,233,000

8
CRIMINAL MINDS
CBS
17,007,000

9
DANCING W/STARS RESULT SP(S)
ABC
15,867,000

10
MENTALIST, THE
CBS
15,603,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 22, 2008 – September, 28 2008)

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
DAYS
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
NFL REGULAR SEASON L (JETS/CHARGERS)
ESPN
MONDAY
11,881,000

2
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE(S)-09/26/2008
FOXNC
FRIDAY
8,211,000

3
ON THE RECORD W/GRETA
FOXNC
FRIDAY
7,413,000

4
SR/PRES DEBATE 1 2008(S)-09/26/2008
CNN
FRIDAY
7,140,000

5
COLL FTBALL-SAT PRIME L (ALABAMA/GEORGIA)
ESPN
SATURDAY
6,683,000

6
ANDERSON COOPER 360
CNN
FRIDAY
6,502,000

7
COLL FTBALL-THUR NIGHT L (USC/OREGON STATE)
ESPN
THURSDAY
6,456,000

8
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE CVG(S)-09/26/2008
FOXNC
FRIDAY
5,850,000

9
SUITE LIFE ON DECK
DSNY
FRIDAY
5,666,000

10
SUITE LIFE ON DECK
DSNY
SATURDAY
5,129,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 22, 2008 – September 28, 2008)

Each week, Nielsen Sports’ analysts offer their take on the biggest sports media headlines.
Ryder Cup Golf — Minus Tiger
Last Friday morning, 1.4 million ESPN viewers tuned in to Ryder Cup golf coverage from Louisville, Kentucky.  With the world’s best golfer, Tiger Woods, sidelined, golf fans were introduced to Team USA Captain Paul Azinger’s rag-tag group of Ryder Cup rookies.  On Saturday, Ryder Cup’s TV audience more than doubled — an average of 3.2 million viewers tuned in to watch the tournament action on NBC, and on Sunday, 3.9 million NBC viewers watched …

Sunday’s broadcast of the 2008 Emmy Awards drew just over 12.3 million U.S. viewers. By comparison, the 2000 Emmy Awards drew the largest U.S. television audience (21.8 million viewers) of any Emmys telecast in the past 20 years.
The 1979 Emmys, hosted by Henry Winkler and Cheryl Ladd, drew the largest TV audience on record (20.8 million households). The 1986 Emmy Awards, hosted by David Letterman, ranked second overall, with 20.2 million households — an estimated 35.8 million viewers ages two and older — tuning in.
Nielsen’s Emmy ratings date back …

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
NBC
22,230,000

2
HOUSE
FOX
14,773,000

3
60 MINUTES
CBS
14,594,000

4
SUNDAY NIGHT NFL PRE-KICK
NBC
14,024,000

5
FRINGE
FOX
13,272,000

6
PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS(S)
ABC
12,339,000

7
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT-WED
NBC
12,235,000

8
FOOTBALL NT AMERICA PT 3
NBC
10,924,000

9
CSI
CBS
10,190,000

10
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT 9/18(S)
NBC
10,032,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 15, 2008 – September 21, 2008)

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
DAYS
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
NFL REGULAR SEASON – L (EAGLES/COWBOYS)
ESPN
MONDAY
18,608,000

2
CLOSER, THE
TNT
MONDAY
7,627,000

3
COLL FTBALL-SAT PRIME – L (LSU/AUBURN)
ESPN
SATURDAY
5,562,000

4
HANNITY & COLMES
FOXNC
WEDNESDAY
4,921,000

5
NFL SPORTSCENTER – L
ESPN
MONDAY
4,759,000

6
BURN NOTICE
USA
THURSDAY
4,665,000

7
HANNITY & COLMES
FOXNC
THURSDAY
4,589,000

8
ARMY WIVES
LIF
SUNDAY
4,374,000

9
RAISING THE BAR
TNT
MONDAY
4,210,000

10
WWE ENTERTAINMENT (WWE RAW)
USA
MONDAY
4,209,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (September 15, 2008 – September 21, 2008)

It’s one of the few points not up for debate this election season: TV coverage of the typically uneventful U.S. political conventions drew record-breaking audiences. 
Nearly two-thirds of all U.S. households (64.5%) — 120.1 million people age two or older — watched at least one of the 2008 political conventions, according to a new analysis released Thursday by Nielsen. 
Viewership levels for the Democratic and Republican conventions were essentially even, with about half of all U.S. households watching each.  Overall, 15% of all homes tuned in to the Republican National Convention only, while 15.7% …

On Thursday night, John McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention bested Barack Obama’s record-breaking viewership numbers from last week by 500,000 viewers.
More than 38.9 million people tuned in to coverage of the final night of the GOP convention.  In comparison, Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic convention drew 38.4 million viewers.
For the third night in a row, more women (19.2 million) than men (17.9 million) watched the RNC coverage.  Still, McCain’s speech drew significantly more men than Obama’s acceptance speech (16.2 million).  In contrast, Obama drew more women (19.9 …

It’s official: the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games attracted the largest global TV audience ever. 
Between August 8 and August 24, 4.7 billion viewers — or 70% of the world’s population — tuned in to watch the Games, according to Nielsen.  In comparison, 3.9 billion watched the 2004 Athens Games, while 3.6 billion followed the 2000 Sydney Games on TV. 
Host nation China led the viewing with 94% of Chinese viewers tuning in to the Olympics TV coverage, Nielsen reported.  South Korea, though a much less populous nation, also recorded 94% audience reach.  Mexico followed closely with …