October 2012 was a big one for cable news, thanks in large part to the Presidential debates, and the final leg of the campaign. The debates help boost programs, generating a “halo effect” that had an impact on the top cable news programs. Fox News Channel led the way as usual, scoring the top nine programs in total viewers, and the top three in the demo. MSNBC’s strong performance help propel a few of its programs toward the top of the ranker for the month.

“The O’Reilly Factor” was the number one program on Fox News and cable news overall in total viewers. In the demo however, it was “Hannity” that claimed the top spot, with “O’Reilly placing third behind “On the Record.” “O’Reilly” averaged 3.92 million total viewers, while “Hannity” drew 856,000 demo viewers for the month.

On MSNBC, “The Rachel Maddow Show” led the way in both total and demo viewers in October. Maddow placed 10th overall in total viewers, and fourth overall in the demo, behind “Hannity,” “On the Record” and “O’Reilly.” Maddow drew 1.57 million total viewers, and 538,000 demo viewers.

The most watched program on CNN was “Piers Morgan Tonight,” which placed 22nd overall in total viewers with 575,000/ The most watched CNN program in the demo was the 8 PM edition of “AC360,” which edged out “PMT” with 177,000 viewers A25-54.

The most watched program on Fox Business network by far was “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” which averaged 172,000 total viewers and 53,000 demo viewers. Dobbs topped CNBC’s “Kudlow Report” in both total viewers and the demo for the first time in October. CNBC’s most-watched program was “Squawk on the Street,” which averaged 240,000 total viewers and 66,000 demo viewers.

The cable program rankers are below.

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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been front and center over the last few days updating New Yorkers in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. One message that has been consistent in his news conferences is how Sandy’s destruction will make the city and surrounding areas more prepared the next time — like not locating generators in the basements of buildings and testing those generators on a regular basis. This morning he discussed his private sector role, as CEO of Bloomberg, which includes the powerful Bloomberg terminals, news service and Bloomberg TV: “My company… I would have a note to check [the generators] — when I left, the last time I talked to them about it — when we ran on generator power every month.” Bloomberg gave up any operational role in his company when he became mayor in 2002.

Bloomberg also scolded the assembled reporters a bit saying the recovery workers, police and fire personnel “need support rather than to read about criticism all the time.”

Bloomberg’s predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, who was also Mayor during a time of crisis, will be on Larry Kudlow’s show tonight on CNBC to give his perspective.

Tonight’s Presidential debate, moderated by CNN’s Candy Crowley, will be held at Hofstra University at 9pmET. Here’s a round-up of what the broadcast and cable networks have planned.

On ABC News, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will anchor coverage from 9pm-11pmET. They will be joined by Jake Tapper, David Muir and Jon Karl. “Nightline” will be live at 11:35pmET, and ABC News will stream the debate online.

CBS News will also be live from 9pm-11pmET with Scott Pelley at the anchor desk. The network’s post-debate coverage will feature a poll of approximately 500 uncommitted voters around the nation.

Brian Williams will anchor from 9pm-11pmET on NBC News in New York City. He will be joined by David Gregory, Savannah Guthrie, Chuck Todd and Tom Brokaw. Andrea Mitchell will lead the network’s “Truth Squad” fact-check team.

PBS is live from 9-11pmET. Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill will anchor coverage, and political editor Christina Bellantoni will be on hand to report on social media reactions to the debate.

Fox News Channel’s Shepard Smith will anchor on Fox Broadcasting beginning at 9pmET.

Plans for the cable networks are after the jump. Read more

CNBC’s Vice Presidential debate coverage kicks off tonight at 7pmET with Larry Kudlow‘s “The Kudlow Report.” Becky Quick and Carl Quintanilla take over from 8pm to 11pmET with live pre- and post-debate analysis.

Quick and Quintanilla will anchor will be joined by Jim Cramer in the studio and CNBC Washington correspondent John Harwood, who will be live from the debate site in Kentucky.

Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs continues to make inroads against CNBC’s Larry Kudlow. In the third quarter of this year, Dobbs topped Kudlow in the 7pmET time slot among A25-54 viewers, the show’s first quarterly victory since launching in March 2011. Kudlow still has the edge in Total Viewers.

For the third quarter of 2012, “Lou Dobbs Tonight” had 141,000 Total Viewers and 41,000 A25-54 viewers, while “The Kudlow Report” had 159,000 Total Viewers and 37,000 A25-54 viewers.

CNBC still has an edge on FBN in primetime viewers: last week’s cable network ranker shows CNBC placed 55th among ad-supported cable networks in primetime, while FBN placed 86th, though it should be noted that FBN is in 2/3 fewer homes than CNBC and is on an all-digital tier.

We’ll have the third quarter ratings for the general cable networks tomorrow. In the meantime, watch Dobbs recount his first big break on MediabistroTV, after the jump. Read more

The cable business channels had some RNC coverage as well last night. CNBC went with limited coverage, only going live from 10-11PM with Larry Kudlow and John Harwood anchoring. Fox Business was a bit more intensive, going live from 8-11:15 with Neil Cavuto anchoring. Bloomberg TV also had live coverage from 9-11, but is not rated by Nielsen.

Bear in mind that both of these networks were competing against their politics-centric corporate siblings, so the ratings expectations were not set too high.

From 10-11PM–the only hour FBN and CNBC were head to head–FBN averaged 388,000 viewers, including 161,000 adults 25-54. CNBC averaged 163,000 viewers, including 76,000 A25-54.

From 8-9, FBN averaged  246,000 total viewers, and 93,000 A25-54. From 9-10, it drew 307,000 total viewers and 111,000 A25-54.

• ABC News, Univision and National Journal will be partnering at the 2012 Republican and Democratic National Conventions on a pair of events called “Next America.” George Stephanopoulos, Diane Sawyer, Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas will moderate a number of panels “engaging leaders on the demographic revolution that is remaking the face of America.”

• NBC News chief digital officer Vivian Schiller talks to Nieman Journalism Lab. “I’m a big believer in test-and-learn model of innovation. We’re trying stuff. We’re trying lots and lots of stuff and you know going in some of it’s going to work, some of it isn’t going to work. Hey, if things don’t work, as long as you figure out quickly and stop doing them. The whole fail-fast philosophy. We want to try a lot of things.”

• A lesson in the perils of RSS feeds: yesterday CNBC had a story on its site for a number of hours touting Lou Dobbs‘ ratings win over Larry Kudlow. CNBC’s website automatically picks up some press releases off of the wire in certain categories, creating article pages. It has since been taking down.

A couple of weeks ago presumptive GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney sat down with all of the major TV news organizations, and this week he seems to be keeping it going. Yesterday Romney appeared on CNBC, one of the few cable channels where he has made semi-regular appearances (Fox News is where he has guested most).

Romney spoke to Larry Kudlow about gun control, taxes and his time at Bain.

WATCH:

On Thursday, Romney will appear on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight.” Romney has appeared on CNN a handful of times this year, but it will be his first interview with Morgan since securing the GOP nomination. Morgan interviewed Romney last year, when he was still one of a handful of candidates.

We also hear that Romney will likely be interviewed on Fox News Channel this week by Carl Cameron.

For the first time, Fox Business Network’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” topped CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report” head to head in total viewers at 7 PM for a whole week last week. In the key adults 25-54 demo Larry Kudlow‘s show was still on top, but it was close, only leading by FBN by 4,000 viewers.

Lou Dobbs Tonight: 139,000 total viewers, 28,000 A25-54

The Kudlow Report: 122,000 total viewers, 32,000 A25-54

In April, Dobbs topped CNBC in the 7 PM hour, but it was split between Kudlow and a documentary. CNBC still has a distant lead over FBN ratings-wise in most hours 9it is also in nearly twice as many homes), but 7 PM is a big one for the channels, as it bridges the gap between the dayside business programming and the more casual primetime shows.

The challenge now for FBN is to try and pick up ratings momentum in its other dayparts.

MediabistroTV recently sat down with Dobbs for an episode of our series “My First Big Break.” It will air in a few weeks.

President Obama will address the nation from Afghanistan at 7:30pmET tonight.The broadcast, cable and business networks are all planning to carry the remarks, expected to run about 10 minutes.

Brian Williams will anchor for NBC, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos on ABC, and Scott Pelley on CBS. Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier will anchor coverage on the Fox Broadcast Network. PBS will also have coverage of the speech during “NewsHour.”

Fox News, MSNBC and CNN will also carry the Presidential address live. Shepard Smith will anchor for FNC. The 7pmET hour of “Hardball with Chris Matthews” will be live on MSNBC. CNN will present a two-hour special report from 6-8pmET anchored by Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, John King and Erin Burnett. The speech will also air on Current TV.

For the business networks, Matt Miller will anchor on Bloomberg and Larry Kudlow will anchor on CNBC. Fox Business will also carry the address live.