CBS’s “Survivor: Gabon” beat out post-debate analyses of the vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden to claim the slot as the most-watched primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Thursday, October 2, 2008. Almost 13.1 million average viewers tuned in to watch the second episode of the new "Survivor" season.
Post-debate coverage on ABC and NBC rounded out the top three, with 9.778 million and 9.777 million average viewers, respectively.
CBS and FOX's post-debate coverage also made the top ten, drawing almost 8 million and just over 4 million average viewers, respectively.
| RANK | NAME | NETWORK | VIEWERS (P2+) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SURVIVOR: GABON | CBS | 13,076,000 |
| 2 | VOTE2008:ANALYSIS-THU(S)-10/02/2008 | ABC | 9,778,000 |
| 3 | DECISION '08:VP ANALYS(S)-10/02/2008 | NBC | 9,777,000 |
| 4 | UGLY BETTY | ABC | 8,312,000 |
| 5 | CAMPAIGN'08-VP DBATE AN-1(S)-10/02/2008 | CBS | 7,973,000 |
| 6 | MY NAME IS EARL | NBC | 6,717,000 |
| 7 | FUEGO EN LA SANGRE THU | UNI | 5,200,000 |
| 8 | SMALLVILLE | CW | 4,051,000 |
| 9 | FOX NEWS: VP DEB PST 10/2(S)-10/02/2008 | FOX | 4,035,000 |
| 10 | CUIDADO CON EL ANGEL THU | UNI | 3,977,000 |
| Source: The Nielsen Company (October 2, 2008). | |||
Overall, CBS won the night with an average audience of almost 11.5 million viewers, while ABC took second place with just over 8.7 million average viewers. NBC and Univision claimed third and fourth places with roughly 7.7 million and 4.3 million average viewers, respectively. The CW and the FOX followed in fifth and sixth places with average audiences of roughly 3.8 million and 3.6 million viewers, respectively.
