Grammy Awards, pro football are ratings winners (AP)

NEW YORK – Music or sport was the pick for some dweller broadcasting conference on Sun period — and apiece was a celebrity success story.

The Grammy Awards show, stuffed with performances from Lady Gaga to Lil’ Wayne, was seen by meet baritone 26 meg conference on CBS. That’s up sharply from the 19 meg who watched terminal assemblage and the 17.1 meg of 2008, the Nielsen Co. said.

The Grammys are today as such a action exhibit as an awards show, and most of the struggling industry’s bounteous stars took plus of the prime-time opportunity. The exhibit eclipsed modify “American Idol.”

Over on ESPN, an estimated 12.3 meg grouping watched NFL’s Pro Bowl. Despite its migration to base cable, football’s all-star mettlesome had its large conference since 2000, Nielsen said. Except for the Grammys and “60 Minutes” (also 12.3 million), the Pro Bowl had more conference than anything added on TV Sun night.

It follows a way that’s been antiquity since the fall: Pro sport ratings are finished the roof.

NBC’s Sun period collection this instance flavour was up 17 proportionality in viewers, ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” was up 20 proportionality and the NFL Network is effort a toehold — its ratings up 55 proportionality in its ordinal year. Ratings are up for both CBS and Fox, too, Nielsen said.

Compelling news lines prefabricated a difference. Brett Favre connected the Minnesota Vikings, and the Oct. 5 mettlesome in which he visaged his older team, the Green Bay Packers, stands as the most-watched telegram send ever. The New metropolis Saints crowd to the franchise’s prototypal Super Bowl appearance, and the Indianapolis Colts chased a amend season.

Another impalpable bourgeois is the uprise of high-definition television. NFL ratings were 21 proportionality higher in homes with high-def than in those without, Nielsen said. About one-third of the nation’s TV homes today hit HDTV.

This every bodes substantially for CBS, which is televising incoming weekend’s Super Bowl between Indianapolis and New Orleans. Last year’s mettlesome was seen by 98.7 meg grouping — the game’s large conference ever.

Meanwhile, attention had a overmodest success news with the “Miss America” observance on Sat night. It was seen by 4.5 meg people, or a meg more than terminal assemblage and above the show’s baritone saucer of 2.4 meg on CMT in 2008, Nielsen said. It was, however, a farther scream from the 33 meg grouping who watched the observance on programme TV in 1988.

CBS averaged 12 meg conference in maturity instance (7.3 rating, 12 share), for a easy conclusion over its rivals. Second-place Fox averaged 9.7 meg (5.6, 9), ABC had 6.3 meg (4.1, 7), NBC had 5.1 meg (3.3, 5), the CW had 1.9 meg (1.2, 2) and ION Television had 1.3 meg (0.8, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a prime-time cipher of 3.5 meg conference (1.8, 3), Telemundo had 1.1 meg (0.6, 1), TeleFutura had 990,000 (0.5, 1) and Azteca had 200,000 (0.1, 0).

NBC’s “Nightly News” lidded the daytime newscasts with an cipher of 10.1 meg conference (6.6, 12). ABC’s “World News” was ordinal with 8.6 meg (5.7, 10), and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.8 meg conference (4.5 8).

A ratings saucer represents 1,149,000 households, or 1 proportionality of the nation’s estimated 114.9 meg TV homes. The deal is the proportionality of in-use televisions adjusted to a presented show.

For the hebdomad of Jan. 25-31, the crowning 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “Grammy Awards,” CBS, 25.87 million; “American Idol” (Wednesday), Fox, 25.71 million; “American Idol” (Tuesday), Fox, 24.45 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 20.22 million; “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 16.94 million; “House,” Fox, 14.21 million; “Bones,” Fox, 12.331 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 12.328 million; “Two and a Half Men,” CBS, 12.07 million; “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 11.5 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt filmmaker Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a render stake of filmmaker Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox and My Network TV are units of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by General Electric Co. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TeleFutura is a sectionalization of Univision. Azteca USA is a totally owned supplementary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.

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