By Lisa de Moraes
Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Barack Obama became a prime-time star last week by reaching across NBC, CBS, Fox, Univision and three cable networks.

Here's a look at the week's shoo-ins and lame ducks:

WINNERS

Barack Obamamercial. The first bona fide hit of the 2008-09 TV season clocked nearly 34 million viewers Wednesday but, alas, did so across seven networks, which Nielsen Media Research listed individually in its weekly ratings heap. At best, the Obamamercial logged nearly 10 million viewers on NBC -- ranking it No. 33 among the week's programs.

"Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash 2008." More than 14 million people this past Monday caught "SNL's" traditional election-eve prime-time special, in which GOP veep candidate Sarah Palin forgot to wink while threatening to revoke NBC's license for letting Tina Fey mock her. (Palin's first appearance on "SNL," on Oct. 18, attracted 15 million late-night viewers -- 17 million if you add in those who DVR'd it).

"30 Rock." But mocking Palin has paid off handsomely for NBC, and Fey. Thursday's season debut of Fey's "30 Rock" attracted nearly 9 million viewers, its biggest audience ever.

John McCain. He's no Sarah Palin, but the GOP presidential candidate got to show his lighter side to 11.5 million-ish viewers in a last-minute late-night "SNL" guest gig that included a gag about a mock infomercial of his own -- on QVC.

"The Daily Show." Barack Obama beat his wife Wednesday. When Michele Obama was the show's guest on Oct. 8, it drew its best-ever crowd of 700,000. But the Dem prez candidate trounced that record after the airing of the Obamamercial, when his appearance on "The Daily Show" jolted it to record ratings of nearly 4 million viewers.

World Series. Sure, the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays churned up the smallest World Series audience ever, but it still averaged 13.6 million viewers. Last Monday's Game 5 attracted 13 million viewers and was the week's No. 14 program. But Wednesday's Game 5 Part Deux copped nearly 20 million viewers and was the week's top-ranked program. It's the first time in the 106-year history of the Series that a game was suspended and picked up again another night.

"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Bajillionth broadcast of Bald Boy's Halloween special logged more than 10 million viewers Tuesday -- in the same time slot where Ashton Kutcher logged fewer than 6 million with his now-canceled "Opportunity Knocks" series.

LOSERS

"Pushing Daisies." ABC hoped the struggling sitcom would benefit from the lack of scripted competition Wednesdays at 8. Instead, it got beat by Obamamercial on NBC, Obamamercial on ABC and even Obamamercial on Fox.

"Heroes." The NBC drama suffered a series low of 8.2 million viewers. NBC sacked two writer-producers, and creator Tim Kring promised, too late, to simplify the mess "Heroes" has become.

CW Sunday. CW's Outsourced Sunday is sinking fast: Two of its "on hiatus" series, "Valentine" and "Easy Money," were reclassified as "dead."

"Law & Order: SVU." For the third week in a row and the fourth time in five weeks this season, "SVU" suffered a series low against CBS's moved-to-Tuesday "Without a Trace."

The week's 10 most watched programs: Fox's Wednesday World Series Game 5 Part Deux; CBS's "CSI"; ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" and "Dancing" results show; CBS's "NCIS"; NBC's "Sunday Night Football"; CBS's "The Mentalist"; ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy"; and CBS's "60 Minutes."