Grammys rise for CBS; 'Minutes' coup average

Aided by Miley Cyrus, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, the Jonas Brothers and Lil Wayne, CBS' presentation of the 51st Annual Grammy Awards (full coverage) made significant gains among younger viewers this year.

The awards (19.1 million viewers, 7.4 preliminary adults 18-49 rating and 14 share) were up 14% to easily top Sunday night in the ratings.

"The Recording Academy put on quite a show — an unprecedented 24 performances and a range of artists that appealed to tweens, teens, young adults and boomers," Jack Sussman, executive vp of specials at CBS, said in a statement. "It was a broadcast with something for every generation."

The news follows ratings gains this season for the American Music Awards and Golden Globes (which last year was crippled by the writers strike), and declines for the Country Music Awards and Emmys.

Grammys lead-in "60 Minutes" (16.8 million, 3.1/9) was surprisingly average considering the newsmagazine landed the first heavily sought-after interview with Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the pilot who ditched US Airways 1549 in the Hudson River. The telecast was up only a tenth from the show's season average. CBS announced its exclusive on Jan. 23, which technically was enough time for "Minutes" to turn around a segment for its episode on the 25th. But Sullenberger wasn't ready until to talk until the 30th. Then CBS rightfully ducked last week due to the Super Bowl. By the time "Minutes" aired its big scoop nearly a month after the crash, some of the lift may have gone out of the story.

ABC was second with "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (10.4 million, 3.4/8), the first original "Desperate Housewives" (13.7 million, 4.9/11) in three weeks and "Brothers & Sisters" (9.3 million, 3.1/8). Fox was third with repeats and "King of the Hill" (4.8 million, 2.3/5) and "American Dad" (4.6 million, 2.3/5). On fourth-place NBC, part one of the poorly reviewed movie "XIII" (6.3 million, 1.3/3) was edged out as the lowest-rated program on a major network only by Fox's "Hole in the Wall" in the 7 p.m. hour. "Dateline" (7 million, 1.6/4) served as lead-in. The CW did nearly half of the adult rating of "XIII" by airing the 1985 movie "Teen Wolf" (1.4 million, 0.6/1).

The Recording Academy is stingy about Grammy performance clips, so here's the "60 Minutes" interview for those who missed it:

The "60 Minutes" interview was well-produced, as always, though interviewer Katie Couric should have asked Sullenberger what he thinks could be done (if anything) to prevent such an accident from happening again. Also, Couric's inability to get Sullenberger to embrace survivor cliches provided added entertainment value. Did Sullenberger think about the passengers while the plane was going down? Essentially, he did not. Did he pray? Nope. Did the three-minute descent feel like a long time? No, it felt like three minutes. Also, Sullenberger's answer to whether he believes he is a hero was spot-on perfect.