• by Wayne Friedman , February 9, 2009

NBC's "Super Bowl" isn't the only big TV event to see growth so far this year--CBS' "Grammy" Awards improved, too.

The annual music award show climbed 14% to a Nielsen preliminary 7.4 rating/18 share among 18-49 viewers and 6% in overall viewers.

But the biggest push for the nearly four-hour music award show came from young viewers--which climbed 23% to a 6.9/19 among 18-34 viewers, up 5.6/15 from the year before. Some analysts are discounting this year's "Grammy" growth because last year's low numbers occurred in the middle of the writers' strike, when overall TV viewing was depressed.

CBS had no problem winning the night, earning a 6.5/16 among 18-49 viewers. This included a special "60 Minutes" interview early in the evening with the pilot who recently landed a U.S. Air jet safely in New York's Hudson River. That gave the show an above-average 3.1/9 for 18-49 viewers.

The big Grammy event pushed down ABC for the night, which usually grabs the top slot among all networks on Sunday.

Taking a big hit was ABC's "Desperate Housewives," which moved to a 4.9/11 during the 9 p.m. hour--the strongest hour for the Grammy Awards show, which took in a 8.2/19 during that time period. At 8 p.m., "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" landed with a 3.4/9, down a bit from its recent episodes.

Against stiff competition, NBC decided to go with a movie--"XIII"--after its "NFL Pro Bowl" game, which grabbed a 3.1/8 in early returns. But the two-hour movie was of little interest to viewers, averaging a small 1.3/3.

Fox chose a mix of originals and repeats for their comedies, with "Family Guy" taking the best numbers with a rerun at 2.8/6.

For the night, CBS was almost three rating points higher than second-place ABC, which earned a 3.5/9. Fox had a 1.9/5; NBC a 1.8/5; Univision, a 0.9/2; and CW with a 0.4/1.