According to preliminary overnight ratings, 24.5 million viewers watched Steve Kroft‘s interview with President-elect Barack Obama and Michelle Obama last night on 60 Minutes, giving the show its best viewership since 1999. The show drew a 6.4 rating in A18-49.

It was the Obamas first interview since election day.

The show got an assist from another down-to-the-wire NFL game between the San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers. And speaking of football, Pres.-elect Obama told Kroft he’d like to see an eight-team college football playoff scenario to determine a true national champion.

> More from the CBS News press release: The program garnered a 17.4 rating and a 26 share in the 56 Nielsen metered markets, its best delivery since January 17, 1999…

“60 MINUTES” SCORES HIGHEST METERED MARKET RATING IN NEARLY 10 YEARS

Early Ratings for the Obama Interview Indicate the News Magazine Will Finish # 1 for the Week for the Second Straight Broadcast

60 MINUTES scored its highest Nielsen metered market rating in almost a decade last night. The broadcast featured Steve Kroft’s interview with President-elect Barack Obama and the future First Lady Michelle Obama.

The program garnered a 17.4 rating and a 26 share in the 56 Nielsen metered markets, its best delivery since January 17, 1999.

This performance almost assures that, when national ratings are released tomorrow morning (18), 60 MINUTES will be America’s number-one program for the second consecutive week.

Last week, the broadcast was Nielsen’s highest rated and most viewed program for the week. It contained Steve Kroft’s election-night debriefing of President-elect Barack Obama’s top four campaign aides, Scott Pelley’s investigation of toxic electronic waste from America that ends up in dangerously polluted dumps in places like China, and Morley Safer’s interview of Ted Turner.