According to Nielsen 57 million people watched the presidential debate on Friday night between Barack Obama and John McCain, meaning about 1/3 of the television sets in major U.S. markets tuned in — also based on our unofficial research (i.e. Twitter) a whole lot of television sets in bars. That is just shy of the number of people who watched the first debate between John Kerry and George W. Bush in 2004 and well under the most-watched presidential debate back in 1980 — also known as the pre-HBO, Internet era — between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, which drew more than 80 million viewers.

Of course 57 million doesn’t take into account the number of people who were watching the debate via a livestream on the Internet, or the ever-proliferating liveblog, or the jam-packed twitter highway. At some point someone is going to have to figure out how to measure these things and incorporate them — does the fact the Palin-Couric SNL opener vid on NBC.com has already had 1,202,068 view factor into the ratings at all? Here’s what we do know.

Read more

Fresh off his loss in November, former Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. (D-Tenn.) is joining the likes of Dick Gephardt, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in his post-political career: public speaking.

New York-based Greater Talent Network has just announced its exclusive representation of Ford, Jr.:

Harold Ford, Jr. Former U.S. Representative, D-Tenn.

Exclusive Representation by Greater Talent Network

Described by President Bill Clinton as “the walking, living embodiment of where America ought to go in the 21st century,” former U.S. Representative Harold Ford, Jr. is a dynamic and charismatic speaker.

Ford joins the Greater Talent Network after competing in one of the country’s most closely watched U.S. Senate races. He broke new ground in the campaign for his ability to connect with people from all walks of life by communicating fresh ideas grounded in mainstream American values of faith, opportunity and hard work.

RELATED:

New York Times television critic Alessandra Stanley spent yesterday working over her remote, watching the crush of coverage — with the exception of CBS, of course — of Gerald Ford‘s death:

In Gerald R. Ford, who was 93 and served less than one full term, television found the avatar of comfortable presidential fadeouts. The deaths of Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon were too fraught with the Shakespearean tragedies they lived in office. Ronald Reagan‘s life and two terms were so momentous that the days leading to his funeral, though full and colorful, were also weighed down with mourning and Hollywood pageantry.

Her observations about the coverage are interesting, particularly when Stanley veers from the coverage itself. Like here:

Mr. Ford’s retirement was dignified and decent, but not particularly distinguished: old news clips showed him in the 1980s and 1990s playing golf and attending fund-raisers for Republicans, not raising roofs for the homeless or public awareness about pandemics in Asia and Africa.

So Ford wasn’t Jimmy Carter. We get it. But let’s move on to Stanley’s swipe at Today‘s Ann Curry:

With the exception of those offered by Ann Curry, who on “Today” adopted her usual smarmily maudlin tone, most of the encomiums were by turns affectionate and respectful, but not unduly mournful.

EARLIER: