Ads for Macintosh computers ranked #6 and #8 in Tivo’s tracking of the top ten most watched TV commercials for April 2008.

In TiVo’s report, the top ten most watched commercials had Apple winning spots number 6 and 8. In this case, the shows on which the commercial aired, American Idol, is a top rated show, but that generally isn’t the case.

It’s well known that TiVos record not only which shows viewers watch for delayed Nielsen ratings but also, in its new STOP||WATCH program, the TiVo reports what commercials viewers are watching.

TiVo viewers can pick and chose which ads they decide to watch or skip over, and it turns out that there’s little correlation to the popularity of the show itself, according to the STOP||WATCH findings released by TiVo last week.

Tivo provided some insight: "Once again, the lack of correlation between ads viewers choose to watch, compared to the top rated programs, is astonishing," said Todd Juenger, Vice President & General Manager, TiVo Audience Research & Measurement.

"The commercial with the highest viewership appeared in a program that didn’t even crack the Top 10. The highest rated program, Grey’s Anatomy airing on April 24, had 33 paid commercial spots in it, but only two of them (both for motion pictures) made the Top 10 commercials. Where are the other 31?? Viewers are exercising control over which ads they choose to watch. As DVRs continue to proliferate, understanding which advertisements hold audiences in which programming environments -- especially during timeshifted viewing -- is crucial."

The two top ten placings attest to the fact that there’s somethings special about that "Hi, I’m a Mac, I’m a PC" opening and story lines with Justin Long and John Hodgman that grabs and holds the viewers’ attention. As a result, that ad campaign may be around for some time to come as viewers vote with their TiVos.