Number Crunching: This Week's TV Ratings

• Raining McCain. John McCain's presidential nomination acceptance speech on Thursday broke Barack Obama's record from last week, 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 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 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 became the highest-rated premiere on any cable network ever with 7.7 million viewers. The Closer held the old record with 5.26 million viewers.
• Saying farewell to The Shield. In its final season, The Shield drew 2.1 million viewers for its premiere, about the same as the premiere of its previous season.

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