- Raining McCain. John McCain's presidential nomination acceptance speech on Thursday broke Barack Obama's record from last week [1], bringing in about 38.9 million viewers. That's roughly 500,000 more than Obama's speech and is now the highest-rated nomination acceptance speech ever.
- 9021-oh! The premiere of the new 90210 [2] became the highest-rated premiere of any scripted series in CW history on Tuesday, drawing an average of 4.9 million viewers over the two hours. Encouragingly for the network, the show actually gained a few viewers between its first and second hours.
- Spreading the gossip. Gossip Girl [3] couldn't match those numbers, but it still did well for itself with 3.4 million viewers, its most-watched episode since its premiere a year ago.
- The bar? Consider it raised. Meanwhile, Raising the Bar [4] became the highest-rated premiere on any cable network ever with 7.7 million viewers. The Closer [5] held the old record with 5.26 million viewers.
- Saying farewell to The Shield. In its final season, The Shield [6] drew 2.1 million viewers for its premiere, about the same as the premiere of its previous season.
Source [7]