The Electorate Stays Tuned for '60 Minutes'

The race for the White House made for some strange ratings last week.

Here's a look at the week's apogee and perigee:

WINNERS

"60 Minutes." If you can get two very tight football games to power about 22 million people into your show, and you feature President-elect Barack Obama's campaign strategists plus America's Greatest Living Weirdsmobile Billionaire Ted Turner, you, too, can attract nearly 19 million people and become the No. 1-ranked prime-time show of the week for the first time since profiling Michael Jackson nearly five years ago.

Election night. Everyone's a winner on Election Day. Except, of course, John McCain. Oh, and CBS, and maybe NBC. On the bright side, it was a game-changing moment for cable news. CNN, home of the Faux-logram, outstripped all broadcast and cable news nets from early evening through Obama's victory lap. (CNN also logged its biggest-ever weekly prime-time audience, ranking among cable nets behind only Fox News Channel, which celebrated its second consecutive week at No. 1 among cablers. Even MSNBC landed in the top five among cable nets.) Meanwhile, ABC won prime time on election night, ending NBC News's 10-year reign over that derby. NBC at least logged a respectable prime-time number, though it was off by 3 million viewers compared with '04.

"Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash 2008." NBC's election-eve clip job was its most-watched entertainment special since its Golden Globes telecast in January '07. This would be more impressive had NBC broadcast a Golden Globes ceremony in January 2008, but striking writers took care of that one.

"Ghost Whisperer." Armed with a leg-braced, doe-eyed towheaded ghost boy and the accidental shooting death of her made-for-TV husband, Jennifer "My Friends Call Me Love" Hewitt copped her best ratings since February '07.

"Life." More appropriately named since moving from NBC's death-by-time slot Friday to Wednesday night, where 33 percent more viewers were able to find it.

LOSERS