GRAMMYS TELECAST MOST WATCHED SINCE 1984

With news of the death of Whitney Houston overwhelming broadcast and cable newscasts over the weekend, many of them mentioning that producers of the Grammy awards were “scrambling” to come up with a fitting tribute to her, it was inevitable that the awards show would pull big ratings. And they did. After last year’s telecast, which drew the biggest ratings in a decade, Sunday night’s drew the biggest ratings in 28 years, according to overnight Nielsen figures. An average of 41.1 million viewers watched the primetime portion of the telecast, up 54 percent from the 26.7 million who tuned in last year. As usual, the telecast received mostly mixed reviews, with critics praising the awards for Adele and lamenting the slight to Amy Winehouse, who received a bare mention among the departed performers of the past year. Todd Martens of the Los Angeles Times thought that the awards telecast looked more “bloated” than usual and remarked that it once again demonstrated that “the Grammys are better at showcasing legends than attempting to capture the pop zeitgeist.” Tim Goodman of the Hollywood Reporter concluded his review by observing that “since there’s no getting around the fact that Whitney Houston’s death loomed over this party, it might have been cause for applause to hear even one artist use that death as a cautionary tale to every future music superstar recording American Idol, The Voice or The X Factor and dreaming of their own chance.”