BET Awards Draw in 7.7 Million Total Viewers

NEW YORK: Sunday’s live premiere of the BET Awards garnered 7.7 million total viewers, making the event the number one awards show on cable this year.

The BET Awards ’11 rank as the number two telecast in network history, only behind the ’09 Awards, which honored Michael Jackson. The Red Carpet Show drew in 2.7 million total viewers; the post-show scored 3.9 million total viewers.

The live telecast also dominated the social media and digital worlds. Throughout the broadcast, 7.5 million tweets were regarding the awards, while 2.5 million tweets occurred during the live airing. The hash tag #BET AWARDS averaged 11,500 tweets per minute during the live event. The Coca-Cola Viewers’ Choice Award received more than 2.4 million votes via mobile text and online voting, a 240-percent jump from last year. The FANdemonium Award voting set an all-time record number of text and app votes, with more than 2 million text votes and more than 11 million votes from the 106 & Park app.