MTV Movie Awards viewership slips from last year

Did MTV Movie Awards viewers get weary of Kristen Stewart looking gloomy?

Whereas the 2009 telecast of the MTV Movie Awards drew 5.3 million viewers, the show's largest pull in five years, last night drew 4.6 million. That's a 13% drop. 

Among households across all three networks which carried the Awards -- MTV, MTV2, and this year adding VH1 -- the numbers are considerably closer and basically on par. Either way, a solid performance.

(Yes, some sites are reporting the Awards drew 16.4 million viewers and claiming a 2% rise -- this is not actual average viewership, this is from a MTV press release touting how many people sampled the telecast by watching merely one minute or more).

Host Aziz Ansari did a solid job, though the Awards lacked a mega-moment like last year's Eminem vs. Bruno "accident" and was criticized for plenty of semi-bleeped profanity.

Perhaps more crucially, the awards were up against some tough sports competition on broadcast. 

Game 2 of the NBA Finals on ABC easily won the night, drawing very roughly 11.1 million viewers and a 5.0 preliminary adults 18-49 rating. The Lakers vs. Celtics game was up 9% from last year and ranked as the strongest Game 2 in six years.

While most competitors had repeats, NBC also had sports programming with Game 5 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals, pulling 6.2 million and a 2.3 rating. In household viewership, the NHL game delivered the highest overnight number for non-overtime Game 5 since 2002.