'Oprah Winfrey Show' Has Season-High Rating
Episode centered around Obama’s historic win on Tuesday
By Paige Albiniak -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/6/2008 2:12:00 PM EST
CBS Television Distribution’s The Oprah Winfrey Show hit its highest single-day ratings in nearly nine months with a show about Sen. Barack Obama’s historic win on Tuesday night.
The episode climbed to a season-high 6.5 average household rating in the metered markets. That’s up nearly 33% from its last reported national live plus same day household average of 4.9 in the week ending Oct. 26.
Winfrey, who was featured prominently by news organizations after she was spotted standing in the crowd at Obama’s victory rally in Chicago’s Grant Park on election night, spent the program discussing the win with a prestigious political panel, including David Gergen, Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.), Gloria Steinem, Peggy Noonan and Henry Louis Gates.
The episode also performed among daytime’s key demographic of women aged 25 to 54, hitting a 3.6/19, the show’s highest rating among that group since Feb. 5, 2008.
