Jan. 19--While the eastern half of the U.S. tweeted about the Grammy Awards ceremony, viewers of the broadcast on the West Coast needed to waited three hours to weigh in unless they happened to be watching inside the Staples Center.
That will no longer be the case as CBS, the network rights holder to the trophy show honoring the recording industry, is catering to the social media crowd by airing the Grammys live on TV stations it owns in Los Angeles (KCBS), San Francisco (KPIX), Sacramento (KOVR) and Denver (KCNC).
Starting with the 58th Annual Grammy Awards held on Feb. 15 at the Staples Center, the live feed of the ceremony previously shown only in the Eastern and Central time zones will be seen at 5 p.m. PT and 6 p.m. MT on CBS-owned stations. CBS affiliates that currently run the telecast on a delayed basis also have the option to take the live feed.
All CBS stations and affiliates in the western time zones will continue to show a tape-delayed Grammys telecast in prime time as they have in the past.
The Grammy Awards routinely ranks as one of the year's highest-rated TV broadcasts. Last year's event averaged 24.8 million viewers, with about one-third of them in the 18- to 49-year-old age group that advertisers covet.
