TVSquad

You would think that the highest-rated Comedy Central show of all-time would either be an episode of South Park or one of the nightly news satire programs, The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. It's actually none of those. The biggest audience-getter was a Christmas special featuring various puppets.

The Sunday debut of Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special grabbed 6. 6 million viewers. South Park held the record before and is now in second place.

Here are the weekly TV ratings, by number of viewers.

1. America's Got Talent (NBC)
2. Two and a Half Men (CBS)
3. So You Think You Can Dance - Weds (FOX)
4. So You Think You Can Dance - Thurs (FOX)
5. Deal Or No Deal - Tues (NBC)
6. CSI (CBS)
7. CSI: Miami (CBS)
8. 60 Minutes (CBS)
9. NCIS (CBS)
10. Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader (FOX)
11. CSI: NY (CBS)
12. NBA Finals - Game 1 (CBS)
13. Shark (CBS)
14. How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
15. NBA Finals - Game 2 (CBS)
16. The Next Best Thing (ABC)
17. Hell's Kitchen (FOX)
18. House (FOX)
19. American Inventor (ABC)
20. Criminal Minds (CBS)

To follow up on what Keith mentioned earlier today, Brian Williams has a lot of good quotes in this interview with Ed Bark from The Dallas Morning News, including this one:

"If my folks have a new slogan loaded up, they have not shared it with me. I think the feeling in this building is we'll do the best by being the best. I don't plan to change this newscast. We don't need to. Let's do the best newscast instead of the best commercials."

That last part seems to be an indirect nod towards the CBS commercials for Katie Couric taking over the CBS Evening News, and if you don't believe that, there's this quote, when asked why he's in Dallas, as Couric was earlier this summer:

"I'm not coming to address a rally or whip up large crowds of people."

Williams keeps track of the competition, and has been in the business long enough to know what would work on the show and what wouldn't.

"I could load up the Nightly News with crap and probably get a higher rating. We know how to do that but we won't."

NBC Nightly News continues to be the #1 network news program.

[via TV Newser]