The “Today” show had a backstage pass for last night’s TIME 100 gala in New York. Matt Lauer conducted interviews with the honorees and a segment aired this morning. Joining Vice President Joe Biden, Marissa Mayer, Jimmy Fallon, Claire Danes, Jimmy Kimmel, Sen. Rand Paul, Lena Dunham and Daniel Day-Lewis a the event were tvnewsers including CNN honcho Jeff Zucker, MSNBC boss Phil Griffin, Barbara Walters, Gayle King, Norah O’Donnell, Alex Wagner, Willie Geist and Alina Cho. By next year’s TIME 100, the magazine will likely be part of a new company, spun off from Time Warner, which Managing Editor Rick Stengel acknowledged in his speech, “An independent Time Inc. will show the power of great journalism, the power of great content to pay for itself.”

• “Nightly Business Report,” now owned and produced by CNBC, has its first sponsor: The Street Inc., which was co-founded by CNBC host Jim Cramer, gets two 30-second credits at the beginning and end of NBR.

• Vice President Joe Biden will be a guest as part of a gun control roundtable on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” The segment will air on Thursday’s show.

• CBS’s Bob Schieffer is part of the opening session at the annual NAB show happening right now. But the big story in Las Vegas is, it’s raining.

Vice President Joe Biden was sworn in for his second term this morning at 8:21amET. The cable news channels carried live coverage of the event. While CNN and Fox News carried the entirety of the event, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and his guests were discussing gun control as Father Kevin O’Brien offered a solemn prayer before the swearing in.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor administered the oath of office. Two of CNN’s big gets for Inauguration coverage include both Biden and Sotomayor. Soledad O’Brien sat down with Justice Sotomayor and Gloria Borger got the first post-election interview with Vice President Biden. Both interviews air tomorrow.

President Obama’s official swearing in happens in less than an hour.

NBC was the most-watched network for the final presidential debate last night with 12.391 million viewers tuning in. ABC was next with 11.730 million, according to Nielsen Fast National numbers. But the 11.474 million that watched on Fox News were enough to give the network its most-watched telecast ever. Fox News’s previous record was set in 2008 when VP nominees Gov. Sara Palin and Sen. Joe Biden debated. On that night 11.098 million watched. Fox News also topped CBS and beat the combined viewership of MSNBC and CNN.

On the three cable and three broadcast networks the debate was watched by 53.9 million people. The total will likely be down from the two previous debates when all networks are added up. The candidates faced stiff competition from Monday Night Football on ESPN (10.66 million viewers) and Game 7 of the NLCS on FOX (8.1 million viewers).

• Broadcast Fast Nationals 9-10:34pm:

NBC: 12,391,341 in total viewers / 5,839,648 in 25-54
ABC: 11,730,247 in total viewers / 4,361,952 in 25-54
CBS: 8,437,098 in total viewers / 3,564,135 in 25-54

• Broadcast post-Debate analysis 10:34-11pm

NBC: 9.327 million total viewers / 3.6 rating in 25-54
ABC: 8.052 million total viewers /2.6 rating in 25-54
CBS: 6.167 million total viewers / 2.3 rating in 25-54

• Cable coverage 9:00-10:30pm:

FNC: 11,474,835 in total viewers  /3,433,142 in 25-54
CNN: 5,808,405 in total viewers  /2,475,772 in 25-54
MSNBC: 4,063,673 in total viewers / 1,701,793 in 25-54

• Cable primetime 8:00-11:00pm

FNC: 9,068,124 in total viewers / 2,586,259 in 25-54
CNN: 4,374,775 in total viewers / 1,833,421 in 25-54
MSNBC: 3,295,125 in total viewers / 1,345,369 in 25-54

• First 2012 Debate: 67.2 million
• 2012 VP Debate: 51.4 million
• Second 2012 Debate: 65.6 million
• Third 2012 Debate: 59.2 million

POLL: Where Did You Watch the Debate?

In the wake of his own debate last week, Vice President Joe Biden is planning to make the morning show rounds on Wednesday, following the second debate between Mitt Romney and President Obama. Biden will speak to NBC’s “Today,” “CBS This Morning” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.” BuzzFeed’s Zeke Miller has the details:

The pre-booking stands in contrast to the last debate, when the Obama campaign was temporarily shell-shocked by the president’s performance. Aides waited more than 10 minutes to enter the “spin room” in Denver as they formulated a message. The following morning, aides, not high profile surrogates, took to TV.

The final Nielsen numbers are in. An estimated 51,419,000 people tuned in to watch Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan debate last night across 12 TV networks.

That’s down -27% from the 70 million who watched the one and only 2008 Vice Presidential debate between Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin. The most watch VP debate and tied for second-most watched of all debates. 12008 notwithstanding, last night’s debate had the highest VP debate viewership since the George H.W. Bush-Geraldine Ferarro debate in 1984. That debate nabbed 56.7 million viewers.

The Oct. 1980 debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan is the record-holder with 80.6 million tuning in, and that was only on three networks.

> Earlier: Fox News tops MSNBC/CNN Combined; CBS #1 on Broadcast

Preliminary ratings are in for the one and only Vice Presidential debate. At least 43 million tuned in to the three cable networks Fox News, MSNBC and CNN as well as CBS, ABC and NBC. That number will go up when final numbers are released and will include additional networks like PBS, FOX, Univision and the business channels.

• Update: Final Ratings: 51.4 Million Watch

Fox News is the most watched network with 10 million viewers, more than MSNBC (4.38 million) and CNN (4.15 million) combined.

For the broadcasters, according to Nielsen Fast National data, CBS was the most watched, followed by ABC then NBC, with less than 500,000 viewers separating the big 3 networks.

(As we saw with the first presidential debate  — watched by 67.2 million viewers — preliminarily Fox News was the most watched, but when finals came out ABC was on top.)

It’s unlikely last night’s debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan will get close to the numbers of the Biden-Sarah Palin face-off four years ago. 69.9 million viewers tuned in that night — tied with a Bush-Clinton-Perot debate in 1992 for the second most-watched debate ever.

• Cable News 9:00-10:30PM:

FNC: 10,019,827 in total viewers (3,057,099 in 25-54)
MSNBC: 4,378,671 in total viewers (1,619,542 in 25-54)
CNN: 4,145,951 in total viewers (1,523,882 in 25-54)

• Broadcast Fast Nationals 9-10:30PM:

CBS: 8,308,421 in P2+ (3,400,620)
ABC: 8,287,610 in P2+ (2,995,352)
NBC: 7,851,757 in P2+ (3,560,307)

• Broadcast Post-Debate Analysis 10:33-11:00PM:

NBC: 6,697,000 in P2+ (2,875,000 in 25-54)
ABC: 6,057,000 in P2+ (2,372,000 in 25-54)
CBS: 5,931,000 in P2+ (2,187,000 in 25-54)

• 8:00-11:00PM (cable news primetime)

FNC: 8,052,332 in total viewers (2,283,719 in 25-54)
MSNBC: 3,516,671 in total viewers (1,275,399 in 25-54)
CNN: 3,265,598 in total viewers (1,164,117 in 25-54)

Four years ago, Fox News broke a record when it drew 11.1 million viewers for the Biden-Palin debate, its most-watched program ever.

Tonight’s one and only vice presidential debate will look and feel a little different than last week’s first presidential debate. The topics will be split between foreign and domestic issues, broken into nine 10-minute segments.

Moderator Martha Raddatz will be referring to Rep. Ryan as “Mr. Ryan,” a request from the Romney-Ryan campaign.

Vice President Biden and Rep. Ryan will be seated next to each other and at the same table as Raddatz. This is similar to VP debates in 2000 and 2004, though not 2008, when Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin stood behind podiums.

While 69.9 million watched that Biden-Palin debate. Palin, now with Fox News, told Megyn Kelly today she’s never watched it: “Life goes on, you move forward,” said Palin. “I don’t rehash the past.”

MSNBC is producing two new documentaries on the two major party candidates for president. Chuck Todd hosts “Mitt Romney: The Making of a Candidate,” and Chris Matthews hosts “Barack Obama: Making History,”

The Romney special features an exclusive with the candidate which was conducted yesterday. It also looks at Romney’s rise as a successful businessman; the role of the Mormon faith in his life; and his relationships with his family and staff.

The Obama doc features interviews with Vice President Joe Biden, Obama Campaign Advisor David Axelrod and Caroline Kennedy. The special examines Pres. Obama’s rise to the highest office in the land and highlights his first term accomplishments.

“Mitt Romney: The Making of a Candidate” airs on MSNBC two weeks from tonight at 10pmET. “Barack Obama: Making History” airs Monday, September 3 at 10pmET.

More details in the press release after the jump…

Read more

The Sunday show pendulum swung back to NBC this week as “Meet the Press” topped CBS’ “Face the Nation” by 40,000 Total Viewers and 146,000 A25-54 viewers. Vice President Joe Biden was the guest on “MTP.”

Compared to the same week last year, only Univision’s “Al Punto” grew in both ratings measurements. “Face the Nation,” “Meet the Press,” ABC’s “This Week” and “Fox News Sunday” are down in both.

Cable rebroadcasts of “Fox News Sunday” averaged a combined 2,090,000 Total Viewers and 431,000 A25-54 viewers. A rebroadcast of “Meet the Press” on MSNBC added 567,000 and 208,000, respectively.

“Face the Nation” is based on the first half-hour only, as the full contiguous hour airs in just 64% of the country.

The numbers for May 6: