This post is part of our feature on Money Winners of 2008. See all 20.

Everybody likes an underdog, but especially me -- I'm a die-hard Cincinnati Bengals fan, after all. So, heading into the 2007 football season, I had quite a soft spot for New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning. His older brother, Peyton, had just led the Indianapolis Colts to a Super Bowl victory. Meanwhile, cranky New York sports fans were calling for Eli's head due to his rather spotty performance behind center. As far as Archie's boys go, it wasn't hard to pinpoint Eli as the underdog.

But, a funny thing happened on the way to the Super Bowl. The Giants nearly upset the undefeated New England Patriots in their last regular-season game, and then the Boys in Blue went on to score unexpected playoff victories against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Dallas Cowboys, and the Green Bay Packers. Suddenly, Eli Manning was following in big brother Peyton's footsteps and preparing for a final showdown against the (still undefeated) Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

Going into that fateful championship game, it's probably a safe bet to say that most of the football universe was rooting for the Giants. By this point in the season, the Patriots had embarrassed nearly every team in the NFL once or twice, and sports fans were thirsty for vengeance. As a result, the Eli Manning fan club swelled to proportions never before seen.

Last night's Super Bowl may have been the most watched telecast ever, according to preliminary data compiled by Nielsen Media Research.

Ratings for the contest between the New York Giants and New England Patriots were up 9% from last year. Figures for the number of viewers weren't immediately available from Nielsen. The most watched program of all time was the 1983 finale of "M-A-S-H." Until now, the most-watched Super Bowl was in 1996 when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Shares of News Corp (NYSE: NWS), whose Fox Network broadcast last night's game, are down 18% over the past year as Wall Street worried that Rupert Murdoch's media empire would be hurt by a slowdown in advertising spending and the Hollywod writers' strike.

Far away from prying television cameras, News Corp (NYSE: NWS) Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch and NFL honcho Roger Goodell probably hooted and jumped for joy when the New York Giants and New England Patriots made it into the Super Bowl. Maybe they made "ka-ching!" noises or exchanged high-fives with their underlings.

They couldn't have asked for a better outcome if they had scripted it. There are so many compelling story lines, including whether the Patriots will be the first undefeated NFL team in more than 30 years. The New York -- as in the top media market -- Giants are no slouch for drama either. Who would have thought that Indianapolis Colts quarterback and ubiquitous pitchman Peyton Manning would be watching brother Eli lead the Giants in the sports spectacle to end all sports spectacles.

All this is a huge plus for News Corp's Fox network. A San Diego-Green Bay game --- which would have been great --- wouldn't have drawn the ratings the network needed to meet its guarantees to advertisers. TV commercials are sold based on ratings guarantees. When the programs don't meet the targets, the networks have to "make good" by giving away commercial time on other programs.

The one problem for Fox may be the Super Bowl game itself, which have at times been blowouts. This one won't be much different. Sorry Giants fans, the Patriots are going to go undefeated. News Corp shareholders are probably hoping that the game is at least interesting enough for people to watch the $1 million commercials.