————

The combined overall household rating for the inauguration of President Barack Obama in the top 56 local television markets where Nielsen maintains TV meters was 30.1%.

The Raleigh-Durham market had the largest TV audience with more than 51% of households tuned in to the day’s events.

See previous ratings for presidential elections here.

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 the debate ended at approximately 10:30pm EST.

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 to 1956.

View Nielsen’s historic Emmy Awards TV ratings from 1956 to present.

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% tuned in to just the Democratic National Convention.  Another 33.9% of all households tuned in to both conventions.

Homes that watched both conventions were likely to be older (age 65+) and better educated (32.3% had college degrees) than viewers who watched only one of the conventions. 

RNC-only households were usually bigger (four people or more), had higher incomes ($100,000+), and were more likely to be white, while DNC-only households were smaller (two people), less wealthy ($20,000 or less), and more likely to be African American.

One-fifth (21.2%) of DNC-only homes were headed by an African American, while 83.5% of RNC-only homes were headed someone who is white.

Similar percentages of African American and white viewers tuned in to both conventions (35.7% and 34.5%, respectively).  Among African Americans, 27.4% watched only the DNC, and only 8.1% watched only the RNC.  Meanwhile, 16.2% of white viewers watched the RNC only, and 13.6% watched the DNC only.

Read the full report — and stay tuned during the presidential debates for more Nielsen TV audience analyses.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in the Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, Broadcasting & Cable, and Multichannel News.