Thursdays Ratings; VP Debate Breaks Records

Did the highly anticipated face-off between Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Delaware senator Joe Biden score as high ratings as many had expected? You betcha, Joe!

The VP debate was the highest rated VP debate ever and the highest rated debate overall since the second round of Bill Clinton, Ross Perot and George Bush debating in 1992, which believe it or not scored exactly the same ratings.

Thursday's event scored 69.9 million viewers across 3 broadcast and 3 cable news networks with most viewers flocking to ABC for its coverage (13.1 million). FOX News was the most successful on cable, scoring 11.1 million, its highest ratings ever.

Here's the breakdown:
ABC: 13,130,000
NBC: 12,820,000
CBS: 11,100,000
Fox News: 11,098,000
CNN: 10,685,000
MSNBC: 4,412,000

In other news, "Ugly Betty" lost some steam at 8pm. The ABC comedy scored 8.58 million viewers.

When the show originally premiered in 2006 it averaged 15 million viewers. Last year at this time most of those people who may have been intrigued by the show's early episodes, but later stopped watching, were gone as the show averaged 10 million.

With no scripted competition at 9pm, The CW's "Supernatural" scored 3.57 million viewers, retaining 90% of "Smallville" audience.

ABC:
8pm UGLY BETTY (8.58 million)
9pm VP DEBATE (13.1 million)
10:30pm DEBATE ANALYSIS (9.23 million)

CBS:
8pm SURVIVOR (12.85 million)
9pm VP DEBATE (11.1 million)
10:30pm DEBATE ANALYSIS (7.91 million)

NBC:
8pm MY NAME IS EARL (7.01 million)
9pm VP DEBATE (12.82 million)
10:30pm DEBATE ANALYSIS (8.75 million)

FOX:
8-10pm HOLE IN THE WALL (3.54 million)

THE CW:
8pm SMALLVILLE (3.95 million)
9pm SUPERNATURAL (3.57 million)