California Watch

Updated: Even Colts fans in the Meg Whitman camp had something to smile about after the Super Bowl last night.

Whitman spent $16,600 on a single 60-second ad spot during CBS’ new reality show Undercover Boss, which features company CEOs going undercover among the rank-and-file of the companies they run. The ad, which ran in San Francisco, was the most Whitman has paid for a single ad in Northern California, according to the files we’ve seen so far.

To say the show was a hit would be putting it mildly. Capitalizing on its post-Super Bowl timeslot, Undercover Boss scored television’s biggest premiere since 1987 – not to mention the biggest reality TV premiere in history – with 38.6 million viewers nationwide (thanks to the Sac Bee's Capitol Alert for the heads-up).

In other news, we’ve updated our spreadsheet of Whitman ad buys (below) with records from three San Francisco television stations today. We’ll keep you posted if we add anything else.

 Television ads for Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman began airing around the state today, marking a kick-off of sorts to what promises to be an expensive if not brutal campaign season.

Public advertising documents from a variety of local television stations in Sacramento and the Bay Area show that Whitman has already booked ads worth upwards of $600,000 to advertise in Northern California alone, and a private media buyer told the LA Times yesterday that she also planned to spend $1 million in Los Angeles and another $100,000 in Fresno.

The documents, which outline the specifics of the ad buys and must be made public under federal broadcasting guidelines, also offer some hints about the campaign’s strategy as it begins introducing Whitman to voters.

Across Sacramento and the Bay Area, the campaign is spending heavily on spots to air during news and talk shows, as well as daytime hits like Oprah and prime-time crime dramas like CSI, Cold Case and Law & Order.

You can see the ad here:

Expect to see it plenty. That ad will air on at least three Sacramento television stations hundreds of times by Valentine’s Day, costing the Whitman camp approximately $317,000. She spent at least another $346,000 on three stations in the Bay Area, records show.

Overall, Whitman’s ads will air most frequently on newscasts, which are typically watched by older, civically engaged voters – prime targets for political advertising. Spots during newscasts are also among the most expensive to buy, records show – but not as expensive as hit shows like CSI, for which Whitman paid $8,320 for a single one-minute spot.

Below, you can find a list of the major network ad buys we’ve compiled so far. Check back with us regularly – we have updates coming in from other locations. We’ll add to the spreadsheet when we have them.