Total of 74 million tune in during CBS show Sunday - Baltimore Sun (blog)

In 1984, TV was on another planet in a pre-fragmented media galaxy. In today's media world, the audience the Grammys drew is huge. Last year's Oscar telecast, for example, averaged 37.6 million viewers.

In all, 74 million viewers tuned into part or all of the telecast. Sunday's show was generally up more than 40 percent over last year in key demographics. (See specifics below.) All of these numbers go against virtually every network TV trend.

See my explanation for the energy and buzz surrounding the telecast here. It focuswes on the archetypes and cultural energy tapped by the Whitney Houston and Adele story lines.

Here's the updated release from CBS:

Last night's broadcast of the 54TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS® delivered more than 39.9 million viewers, the largest Grammy audience since 1984 and the second-largest in history, according to Nielsen updated live plus same day ratings for Sunday, Feb. 12.

From 8:00-11:33PM, THE GRAMMY AWARDS® (S) posted a 21.7/33 with 39.91m viewers, 16.0/33 in adults 25-54, 14.1/32 in adults 18-49 and 12.1/31 in adults 18-34.

Compared to last year's event (on Feb. 13), CBS was up +47% in households (from 14.8/25), +48% in adults 25-54 (from 10.8/26), +41% in adults 18-49 (from 10.0/27), +27% in adults 18-34 (from 9.5/28) and added +13.24m viewers (from 26.67m, +50%).  THE GRAMMY AWARDS® posted its best deliveries in households and viewers since 1984 (43.88m), its best adults 25-54 delivery since 1988.  THE GRAMMY AWARDS® matched its best adults 18-49 delivery since 1990 and its best adults 18-34 performance since 2001.

Over 46 million homes and an estimated 74 million viewers tuned in to all or part of THE GRAMMY AWARDS®, all-time highs for a live Grammy broadcast.