Tuning up good Grammy ratings

 

Sure is easy to poke fun at the Jonas Brothers -- go ahead, everybody does it -- and teen queens like Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift.

But it looks like they were at least partly responsible for pulling in some eyeballs for the 51st annual Grammy Awards on CBS on Sunday night. And those would be the important, advertiser-coveted eyeballs (18-34 years old), not the jaded old out-of-the-demo eyeballs (you talkin' to us?).

Not only did the 3 1/2-hour show do well in the ratings overall to the tune of 19.1 million viewers, an increase of 2 million people from last year's record low, but it bumped up its 18- to 34-year-olds by 23% and its 12- to 17-year-olds by 30%.

The lineup of A-list musicians, young and "heritage," pop, rock, hip-hop and country and the full-scale marketing attack by the Recording Academy couldn't have hurt. Neither did the lead-in, which was the "60 Minutes" interview between Katie Couric and the crew from Miracle Flight 1549 where pilot Sully Sullenberger became the Hero on the Hudson.

But don't relax, Oscar producers. This doesn't necessarily mean viewers are over their awards-show fatigue. It just means they had a hankering for T.I., Justin Timberlake, Estelle, Kenny Chesney and/or Katy Perry (dancing in a giant gold lame banana). And you don't have any of those folks. Do you?

Comments

[celebrities exposed]

My vote is for Nelly Furtado. She is the best.