FNC pulled in 8.21 million and led all cable news networks for the debate,  leading CNN’s 7.14 million. FNC coverage of the first Bush – Kerry debate in 9/04 pulled 9.561 million, but that debate had more viewers across the board.

Live + Same Day Cable News Daily Ratings for September 26, 2008

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 2,233,000 viewers
CNN –1,738,000 viewers
MSNBC – 1,155,000 viewers
CNBC – 425,000 viewers
HLN – 359,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 6,949,000 viewers
CNN –5,475,000 viewers
MSNBC-3,326,000 viewers
CNBC –470,000 viewers
HLN – 657,000 viewers

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Nielsen reports that 52.4 million viewers watched the debate Friday night.  It definitely not among the top 10 highest rated debates and was even smaller than the first Bush – Kerry debate in 2004:

NBC press release follows:

“NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL” BEATS PREMIERE OF DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES BY 10 %

SNF Wins Sunday Night For 4th Consecutive Week

NEW YORK – September 29, 2008 – The Chicago Bears 24-20 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on “NBC Sunday Night Football,” won the night while facing strong competition from season premieres on ABC, CBS and Fox including the season premiere of Desperate Housewives on ABC. SNF delivered a 12.3 overnight rating and 20 share (8:30-11:30 p.m., ET), 10 percent higher than Desperate Housewives on ABC and was the highest rated broadcast of the night on any network.

Last night’s game’s metered market rating of 12.3/20 represents a 14 percent increase over last season’s Eagles-Giants game (10.8/17 on 9/30/07).

Top Ten Metered Markets For Eagles/Bears:
1. Philadelphia 31.6/44
2. Chicago 28.9/42
3. Baltimore 18.2/26
4. Las Vegas 16.0/24
5. New Orleans 15.7/21
6. Jacksonville 15.6/24
7. Indianapolis 15.1/23
8. Norfolk 15.1/21
9. Washington D.C. 14.9/24
T10. Denver 14.5/22
T10. Albuquerque 14.5/22

-

It probably should be noted that while it’s true Sunday Night Football was the highest-rated program of the night, Desperate Housewives was actually the most-watched program of the night. You can see the full overnight report for Sunday’s broadcast network shows.

For the week of September 8-14, the premiere of Fox’s Fringe had the largest audience via DVR viewing with 2.211 million viewers via DVRs. Fox also had the second and third largest audiences with Bones and  Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. Rounding out the top ten for the largest DVR audiences were Tuesday and Wednesday’s Big Brother, America’s Top Model, Wednesday and Thursday’s America’s Got Talent, America’s Top Model, 90210 and Wipeout.

The CW had the two top shows for percentage increase over their Live audience with 90210 increasing 37.9% and America’s Top Model increasing 37.6%. Rounding out the top 10 for largest % increase via DVR viewing was Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fringe, Tuesday and Thursday’s Big Brother, Bones, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, and Privledged.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Fox and CW shows predominate in both lists. They began their season premieres this week in advance of the rest of the broadcast networks.

Largest Time-Shifting Audiences for Broadcast TV Shows:

The absolute time-shifting audience size table ranks which of the Top 150 broadcast shows [by Live+7 viewers] had the largest absolute number of viewers watching shows later on their digital video recorders (DVRs)

Greatest % Increase from Time-Shifting for Broadcast TV Shows:

The % Time-shifting table ranks which of the Top 150 broadcast shows [by Live+7 viewers] had the largest % increase in viewing between Live audience and Live+7 audience numbers from viewers watching shows later on their digital video recorders (DVRs).

Definitions:

Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.

Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)

LIVE: The number that watched a program while it was broadcast.

LIVE+SD: The number that watched a program either while it was broadcast OR watched via DVR on the same day the program was broadcast.

LIVE+7: The number watched while a program was broadcast or via DVR within 7 days of original broadcast.

For more information see Numbers 101.

Nielsen TV Ratings Data:©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.

Via ABC press release:

Beginning October 3, WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown will move to MyNetworkTV stations from CW stations. We will likely no longer get Smackdown ratings for our overnight fast affiliate ratings posts, but we will still get them with our final weekly broadcast ratings, which include MyNetworkTV, on Tuesdays.

We think there’s quite a fanbase who is interested in WWE ratings, so we’re going to experiment with posting the WWE ratings results for Friday Night Smackdown and WWE RAW together. Starting Tuesday, September 30, we will publish these WWE ratings on a weekly basis as long as there is interest. Click here to see the past WWE ratings posts.

Although for the week of September 15-21, Friday Night Smackdown was still on the CW, here are the results for the shows:

Scoreboard
Total Viewers (million)	14.23	12.47	10.86	10.58	1.31
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	5.6/14	4.4/11	2.6/7	4.4/11	0.6/2
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34	4.9/13	3.7/10	1.9/5	5.2/15	0.6/2

An impressive goal line stand in the fourth quarter led the Chicago Bears to victory over the Philadelphia Eagles and NFL Sunday Night Football led the night on NBC. The game averaged 15.94 million viewers between 8pm-11pm (the game actually starts at 8:15pm, but we don’t see 15 minute numbers so there is no way for us to break out just the game portion). The return of the ladies from Wisteria Lane led ABC to a second place finish as Desperate Housewives scored a whopping 18.44 million viewers between 9p-10 and rocked in the age demographics. Housewives was down a bit from last year’s premieres based on these numbers, but well ahead its pace at the close of last season. You can see last season’s Desperate Housewives ratings (and last year’s Sunday Night Football numbers as well).

The numbers for Extreme Makeover were definitely down from last year, although it did gain strength in its second hour, but the return of Brothers & Sisters at 10pm performed very solidly after Desperate Houswives holding two-thirds of the viewers and the demo numbers.

Fox’s animations were back and total viewers do not matter. Their strength in the demos, particularly the 18-34 demographics is phenomenal. And even shows like King of The Hill pull numbers among 18-34 year olds that should keep it around if it maintains them. Family Guy with about half the viewers of Desperate Housewives almost had as many 18-34 year olds, and it least in its premiere The Simpsons has some life in it still

Over on CBS this night showcases just how youth starved the eye network is. While Amazing Race and Cold Case pulled OK overall numbers, the demo numbers relative to the field were pretty sparse. Note there were about 15 minutes of Football overrun so the CBS schedule will all be a bit altered from these numbers (and a bit lower for the night overall).

The CW ran with repeats, but next week MRC (Media Rights Capital) takes over programming Sunday nights on the CW with the premieres of In Harm’s Way, Valentine, Inc. and Easy Money.

Full details:

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Robert and I both believe that live events like sports will become relatively more valuable in the future because they are more “DVR-proof”. It seems as if the head of content at ESPN agrees (via MediaWeek):

ESPN’s content guru John Skipper says he is going to make a concerted effort to add even more live sports coverage across all of the network’s media platforms while cutting back on scripted series, reality shows, original movies and other types of more general sports entertainment programming.

“We have found that what sports fans really care about, and why they come to ESPN properties is to watch live games,” said Skipper, the company’s vp of content. ESPN’s Sept. 16 Monday Night Football telecast drew 18.6 million viewers, the largest cable audience ever.

Skipper said he will continue to pursue deals for more major college games, and will look to get additional rights to major professional tennis and golf events when they become available. Reclaiming the National Hockey League is also on his to-do list. The NHL is slated to run on Versus through the 2010-2011 season.

Of course, Skipper’s biggest quarry is the Olympics; Skipper is working on a major pitch on behalf of ESPN and sister network ABC to wrest the Olympics’ rights away from NBC when the bidding for the ’14 and ’16 Games come up next year. As the incumbent, NBC will have some advantages. And after its success in Beijing, it’s not going to give up without a fight. Skipper, without offering specifics, said “we are pretty good at finding ways to acquire rights to major events if we want them.”

Read the rest here.