note the 27 million is a total audience measure who watched at least six minutes. Fueled by a Janet Jackson tribute to her brother Michael, and the release of the trailer for “This is It”, the awards averaged over 11 million viewers across MTV, MTV2 and VH1, up 21% from last year and the largest VMA audience since 2002.
Via MTV press release:
2009 MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS PREMIERE WATCHED BY 27 MILLION TOTAL VIEWERS UP 17% VS. 2008
#1 CABLE TELECAST OF 2009 AMONG P12-34
BEST VMA PREMIERE DAY IN MTV.COM HISTORY
MTV’S LINEAR TV SUCCESS
- The 2009 Video Music Awards was watched by over 26.9 million viewers on MTV, MTV2 and VH1 on Sunday night. This is up +17% from the 23 million who tuned in to MTV/MTV2 last year.
- Airing on MTV, MTV2 and VH1, the 2009 VMAs averaged over 11 million total viewers. This is up +21% from MTV and MTV2’s coverage in 2008 (9.1 million) and the largest VMA audience since 2002.
- On MTV, The 2009 VMAs averaged just under 9 million total viewers, the largest audience since the 2004 awards. Up +6% year to year (8.97 million vs. 8.43 million).
- On MTV2, The 2009 VMAs averaged 749,000 total viewers, up +11% year to year (749,000 vs. 674,000).
- Among P12-34, The 2009 VMAs on MTV, MTV2 and VH1 averaged 7.2 million P12-34 viewers. This is up +16% from MTV and MTV2’s coverage in 2008 (7.2 million vs. 6.2 million).
- On MTV, The 2009 VMAs delivered a 7.5 P12-34 coverage rating, its strongest rating since the 2005 VMAs.
- The 2009 VMAs is the #1 show on cable this year among P12-34.
- On VH1, The 2009 VMAs averaged 1.3 million total viewers, improving its time period by +21%. Among P12-34, VH1 averaged a 1.03 rating, up 8% in its time period.
Source: Nielsen. Live+SD Coverage ratings/000s. Time period improvement = vs. QTD average. Cable rank = 000s. Watched = reach, 1+ minute qualifier.
MTV.COM’S BEST VMA PREMIERE DAY EVER
- Overall, MTV.com logged 2.7M unique visitors on Sunday (9/13/09), a 20% increase over the date of the 2008 VMAs (9/7/08) and a 220% increase vs. last Sunday (9/6/09).
- 1.7 million unique visitors viewed VMA content including show pages, flipbooks, video content and news related to the show on Sunday (9/13/09), a 24% increase over 2008’s premiere day (9/7/08), making it the best VMA premiere day in MTV.com history.
- MTV.com’s VMA-specific content delivered a 14% increase in page views vs. the 2008 show day (9/7/08).
- Overall, visitors to MTV.com viewed more than 5 million video streams on Sunday, a 45% increase from the day of the 2008 VMAs (9/7/08)
- As of noon on September 14, 2009, MTV.com is already seeing significant traffic numbers, with more than 1.8 million unique visitors viewing VMA content, and more than 5.3 million video streams viewed.
Jesse Ignjatovic/Den of Thieves is the Executive Producer for the “2009 MTV Video Music Awards.” Dave Sirulnick is Executive Producer. Garrett English is co-Executive Producer/Executive in Charge of Production. Amy Doyle is co-Executive Producer. Joanna Bomberg is Executive in Charge of Music and Talent. Jen Jones is Producer. Hamish Hamilton is Director. Robin Reinhardt-Locke is Celebrity Talent Executive.
Official sponsors of the “2009 MTV Video Music Awards” are 5 ® Gum, Febreze, Pepsi, Rhapsody ®, Sears, Taco Bell ®, U.S. Army and Verizon Wireless.
The “2009 MTV Video Music Awards” will be available to a potential viewing audience of more than 1.2 billion people via MTV’s global network of 68 channels reaching 577 million households around the world as well as through syndication. In addition, its convergent programming & content will reach the entire interactive community, via MTV’s more than 200 digital media properties around the world.
I’m irked that a network that hardly shows any music videos at all anymore can have the stones to still have an award show for them. Then again, with 27 million viewers tuning in, I doubt their losing any sleep over the hypocrisy of it all.
The only reason so many people watched was because of the Michael Jackson tribute by Janet and the release of the This Is It movie trailer. They bookended those two features so you had to stick with the show until the end to see the trailer.
I was one of those people who hadn’t watched the show since 2002. i doubt they will get the same results next year.
Did anyone watch the pre-show? Beyonce clearly states the award that she wanted to win. They cant just give all the awards to the same person, its overkill. They talked to Taylor Swift before the show and a guy with an accent asked her “who Kanya wait to see” and she gave him a weird look and then she went on with her answer and I think she said lady ga ga or something. Swift came in on a chariot and said that she really liked fairy tales. What a better fairy tale than to get kicked while your having your moment? Then later in the show get a way better ‘moment’ walking in, getting a standing ovation, a way bigger pop. (sounds like a fairy tale to me)
It was a way to show that everyone is together because thats what the whole show was about. Truth be told, no one was really watching the mtv music awards, so they created controversy.. because “now you never know what can happen”. Nice little ratings boost. Pure showbusiness.
It’s a win win situation for everybody, that’s why I also thought that NBC had connections with MTV because Kanye is going to be on The Jay Leno Show tonight.
The sight of that no-talent ho Lady Gaga slobbering all over a Kermit the frog puppet turned my stomach. Only the tribute to Michael Jackson and the Twilight trailer kept me tuned in.
Usually a VMA hater but last night was fantastic.
I didn’t even know it was on. I haven’t tuned in to MTV since…Wow, I can’t even remember. I’m pretty sure Beavis and Butthead still had new episodes, so, over a decade ago? What does MTV show anymore, if not Music Videos?
“What does MTV show anymore, if not Music Videos?”
Please refrain from the generic “They don’t play music videos anymore” “What does the M stand for anymore” type comments. They are so tiring to hear. Not personal against you, just trying to avoid the thread becoming one of those, where each person acts like they are the first to ever notice that music videos don’t get played much.
They’ve been known for non-music video program for almost 20 years now.
What they have strayed from recently is programming with any sort of ties to music. At least “Cribs”, “Diary,” “Making the Video”, “FANatic”, “Say What Karaoke” and even shows like “2Gether” or lesser extent “Newlyweds” and mega-hit “The Osbournes” were about music or musicians (Hell “Bevis & Butthead” had music video segments). Even if a lot of them weren’t great, there was a heavy amount of music-related shows to counter shows like “Real World”. But now its all dating shows and focuses on 13 and 14years old on “MADE” or “True Life” or movies like “Scream”.
I went off track, but music videos, not so much, for a long time now. I think people want music-related programming, and MTV doesn’t get it.
Like him or not, Kanye West stole the show… he knows how to get publicity and may have made Taylor Swift bigger than she was.
She’s HUGE without him. Sells more than he does, gets more airplay, and sells out tours quicker.
I wasn’t making a statement, I was asking a question and hence, the question mark. Like I said, I haven’t watched MTV in over a decade. There were a couple of 3 or 4(I think) hour blocks of Music Videos a day/night back then, plus some B&B, Unplugged, Jams, and maybe “The Real World”?. But I often hear that they don’t play any Music Videos anymore, so that is why I asked.
I was legitimately curious of what they show for 24 hours a day if none of it is Music Videos.
Maybe they should be called YouTube Video Music Awards, as the internet site shows more music than MTV.
Oddly none of the “music” channels (MTV, VH1, BET, CMT) show music video any more.
I’m surprised that many watched (even for a few minutes as the data suggests), but my gut tells me it wasn’t worth watching.
QUOTE: “The only reason so many people watched was because of the Michael Jackson tribute by Janet and the release of the This Is It movie trailer” END QUOTE
I’m sick of Michael Jackson, and I’m sure 12-34 year olds (the key demo for MTV) don’t care all that much about Michael Jackson. Most people under 18 look at him as a pedophile anyways (me included), not as a musician. The VMA’s were up from last year, yet only a bit, so Michael Jackson had NOTHING to do with it.
Also, the 27 million included online streaming, total exaggeration by MTV in their press release, as expected. Only 11 million tuned into it on live television.
I agree with everybody about MTV not playing videos anymore yet ironically, here’s this awards show still.
Also, Madonna is a total hypocrite, here she is praising Michael Jackson just to get some airtime on MTV, when just a couple of years ago, she was talking trash about him calling him a weirdo, which I agree with, but still, what a phony attention whore, but then again we all already knew that…
Isabel, the 27 million was anyone who watched at least 6 minutes of the show on any of three networks, in any of the repeated airings last night. But it does not include online streaming. That was counted separately.
Quote: Most people under 18 look at him as a pedophile anyways (me included)
Why is he a pedophile? He never did anything sexual with these kids. What was clearly stated in court documents from the trial a couple of years ago. And both Jordan from the early ’90s and the kid from a few years back stated as well that the only reason they accused was to wiggle some millions loose from Michael. And Jordan succeeded in the ’90s. Besides that, Michael, accompanied by Lisa Marie Presley, stated in a 20/20 interview with Diane Sawyer in 1994/1995 that the prosecuter didn’t have any evidence against him. For example Jordan said he knew where birthmarks were on M’s body, Jordan wasn’t right. He bought him off, because the prosecutors said he would most likely not be convicted, but it would probably be killing to his music career.
If you still don’t believe that he was innocent in both cases, cool!. Strange, but unfortanely you’re not the only then.
TAYLOR doesent need to get bigger—she’s already big. 2 million fans on facebook.
I hope Kanye gets hit by a truck and dies.
I really don’t like MTV and such. But you can’t deny that the Lady Gaga and Pink performances were worth it. ( I watch them on YT to see what the fuss was about)
Julia, thanks for the correction hun.
I watched it, Janet rocked and as always I loved her, but watching the tribute was hilarious because you get to see what a bunch of phonies most of those celebrities are, I’ve watched MTV since I was little and I remember that a whole bunch of those celebs tearing their phony eyes out on camera were also the ones that made a bunch of Michael Jackson jokes on TRL and various MTV shows before, sad state of the world today where a child molester pop star is heralded as a saint just because he died. But this is just my personal opinion, but go ahead and bash me if you want, cause I’m not reading it. Just putting my two cents in.
Britney was beautiful on video screen…she is best performer…i was really sad when she WIN and not been theree…she is biggest star,all people are UP when she come on video scren…she is amazing artist,biggest salling artist of our decade…
Beyonce showed real class with the Kanye situation good for her
its sad to see that alot of you don’t realize that the kanye west incident was a publicity stunt
Everything on MTV is a publicity stunt.
They air The Hills, right? I think that says enough.
anonymous agreed funny but you can’t help feeling sorry for taylor i can beleive people are hating on her
And the VMA’s proved this year that they don’t need Britney to boost ratings. In typical VMA fashion, the show was mixed with controversial moments, over the top performances, and a star studded lineup. I am really surprised to say this but the Video Music Awards have become relevant again, something they haven’t been probably since Britney kissed Madonna back in 2003. They went through several years where they totally lost their touch, but they have obviously found a new generation of controversial artists, from Lady Gaga to Kanye West, it seems that the over the top pop artist seems to have been born again. We haven’t had this since 1999-2003, when every year artists like Britney, Eminem, Christina Aguilera and Michael Jackson would show up wearing something outrageous, cause controversy, and leave everyone buzzing. This year that was brought back which means the good word of mouth will lead to a large audience again next year.
i loved the VMA’s because the performances were really good and i just wanted to see taylor win. I gotta say though i’m now a fan of beyonce she is really a great person for what she did for taylor.
omg thats like saying 100 million watched the last Idol final, just because 100 millions might have tuned in “at least for a few minutes” during the 2 hour show. when the average number was more like 30 million or something.
The headline editor must be paid by MTV. It should have read “2009 MTV Video Music Awards premiere watched by 11 million”.
that is alot of people who wacthed it ……..i was ant the beinging then i turned it becuase of what happen to talor swift
” The 2009 VMAs is the #1 show on cable this year among P12-34. ”
=> I think Wizards of Waverly Place Original Movie did better :-/
Yes, Madonna, being the most important female performer of the last 25 years+, had nothing in common with Michael Jackson- how dare she draw on comparisons between the two, to make a larger, important point. Shame on her!
Yes, the 27m is very exaggerated- 11m is a decent showing, though. Remember, too, tat it’s airing on three networks now, whereas in the past, it was just MTV.