The 2009 Video Music Awards were the highest-rated and the most-watched since 2004. 2004 was the first year the MTV awards show moved to Sunday nights, though that was part of a five year run where MTV aired the awards show in late August.
Will a year of Kanye West jokes about his hijacking of Taylor Swift's acceptance speech plus anticipation over what will happen this year drive ratings higher for tonight's awards?
MTV Video Music Awards Ratings 1994-2009:
| Household | Number of | *Cost Per :30 | |||||
| Day | Date | Time | Net | rating | Share | Viewers | Second Spot |
| Sun | 9/13/2009* | 9:00-11:31PM | MTV | 5.1 | 8 | 8,972,000 | |
| Sun | 9/07/2008* | 9:00-11:20PM | MTV | 5.0 | 8 | 8,425,000 | 6,914 |
| Sun | 9/09/2007* | 9:00-11:12PM | MTV | 4.0 | 7 | 7,082,000 | 7,238 |
| Thu | 8/31/2006 * | 8:00-11:28PM | MTV | 3.6 | 6 | 5,766,000 | 5,997 |
| Sun | 8/28/2005 | 8:00-11:23PM | MTV | 5.0 | 8 | 8,005,000 | 8,707 |
| Sun | 8/29/2004 | 8:02-11:11PM | MTV | 6.3 | 11 | 10,316,000 | 7,233 |
| Thu | 8/28/2003 | 8:03-11:03PM | MTV | 6.4 | 11 | 10,712,000 | 4,791 |
| Thu | 8/29/2002 | 8:00-11:17PM | MTV | 6.6 | 11 | 11,948,000 | 4,457 |
| Thu | 9/6/01 | 8:00-11:26pm | MTV | 6.6 | 11 | 10,757,000 | 5,059 |
| Thu | 9/7/2000 | 8:00-11:09pm | MTV | 6.5 | 11 | 9,853,000 | 3,788 |
| Thu | 9/9/1999 | 8:00-11:13pm | MTV | 8.0 | 14 | 11,940,000 | 3,485 |
| Thu | 9/10/1998 | 8:00-11:13pm | MTV | 5.8 | 10 | 8,936,000 | 2,785 |
| Thu | 9/4/1997 | 8:00-11:00pm | MTV | 5.2 | 9 | 7,471,000 | 2,626 |
| Wed | 9/4/1996 | 8:00-11:00pm | MTV | 3.6 | 6 | 5,066,000 | 4,128 |
| Thu | 9/7/1995 | 8:00-11:00pm | MTV | 4.1 | 7 | 6,331,000 | 3,384 |
| Thu | 9/8/1994 | 8:00-11:25pm | MTV | 3.7 | N/A | 5,359,000 | 3,184 |
| Note: | |||||||
| - The first nationally televised MTV Video Music Awards was in 1984, but MTV was not subscribing to Nielsen Media Research's | |||||||
| program ratings prior to 1994 | |||||||
| Source: Galaxy Explorer, Nielsen Media Research | |||||||
| *Ad expenditure information should be sourced as Nielsen Monitor-Plus | |||||||
| Copyright 2009 The Nielsen Company | |||||||
