Obama Infomercial Gives U.S. Networks Ratings Boost

NEW YORK, October 31: U.S.
presidential frontrunner Barack Obama's half-hour commercial was seen by 33.55
million viewers across seven networks, with more than 25 million tuning into
the three broadcast networks that carried the special, proving to be more
popular than the final game of baseball's World Series.

On CBS, the special was
seen by some 8.6 million viewers, topping the comedy The New Adventures of
Old Christine, which normally airs
in the Wednesday 8 p.m. time slot and averages around 7.2 million. On NBC,
meanwhile, it pulled in 9.8 million, topping the regular slot holder, Knight
Rider, which has been averaging
just under 7 million viewers.

MSNBC showed gains of more
than 50 percent over its usual audience totals, drawing in 3.5 million viewers
with Obama's ad. BET and TV One also topped their typical audience numbers. BET
scored 714,000 viewers, while TV One had 307,000 viewers. The average for those
networks for that slot are 473,000 and 198,000, respectively.

The only networks with
slightly lower numbers were FOX, which normally airs Bones, a strong performer, in that slot, and
Spanish-language network Univision, which airs telenovelas in prime time.

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski