Lady Gaga's drag show helped MTV get biggest audience in its history - Chicago Sun-Times

August 29, 2011 7:34PM

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Lady Gaga performs at the MTV VMAs on Sunday. | Matt Sayles~AP

Updated: August 29, 2011 8:10PM

More than 12.4 million viewers tuned in to see Lady Gaga in drag as MTV's broadcast of the Video Music Awards scored the event's best ratings ever.

According to Nielsen, Sunday's awards show ranked as the cable network's biggest audience in history, with the VMAs delivering a 10.8 rating and 8.5 million viewers in the network's target 12-34 demographic. The VMAs were up 9 percent from the 2010 show in total viewers.

Backstage after the show, Lady Gaga stayed in character as male alter ego Jo Calderone, explaining, "My family's from Palermo, Sicily. And I'm not a singer or a model or actor or anything. I'm just a guy."

Hollywood Reporter