MTV VMAs RATINGS SHOW HUGE INCREASE

Thank you Kanye. And you, too, Janet, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, Green Day, Madonna, Pink and everyone else who made this edition of the MTV Video Music Awards the #1 cable telecast of the year for persons 12-34.

The VMAs did their job across the boards Sunday night, with 27 million viewers on MTV, MTV2 and VH1, up 17% from the 23 million who tuned in on MTV and MTV2 last year.

The show averaged more than 11 million total viewers, up 21% from last year’s 9.1 million, the largest audience for the show since 2002.

On MTV, the VMAs averaged just under 9 million viewers, the largest since 2004 and up 6% from last year’s 8.43 million. On MTV2, the show averaged 749k, up 11% from 2008’s 674k.

The show averaged 7.2 million among persons 12-34, up 16% from the combined coverage of 6.2 million last year.

On MTV, the telecast delivered a 7.5 12-34 rating, the best since 2005.

VH1 averaged 1.3 million total viewers, improving its time period by 21%, with a 1.03 ratings among persons 12-34, up 8% for its time slot.

Online, MTV.com logged 2.7 million unique visitors a 20% increase over the 2008 VMA, with 1.7 million unique visitors viewing VMA content, a 24% increase over last year, making it the best in MTV.com’s history.

Overall, visitors to MTV.com viewed more than 5 million video streams on Sunday, a 45% increase from the day of the 2008 VMAs.

As of noon today, MTV.com has already attracted 1.8 million unique visitors viewing VMA content, and more than 5.3 million video streams.

Kudos to executive producers Dave Sirulnick and Amy Doyle on a job well done.