What was very bad for Britney Spears was very good for MTV.

Using a would-be comeback performance by Spears as its draw, the cable network's Video Music Awards saw viewership soar 23 percent over last year—the show's first uptick since 2002.

Overall, the Sunday telecast averaged 7.1 million viewers, voyeurs and train-wreck aficionados, per Nielsen Media Research. As a TV draw, the show isn't what it used to be in the early 2000s when it routinely averaged more than 10 million, but it also isn't what it had recently become, a somewhat-overlooked affair that averaged 5.8 million in 2006.

Thanks to Spears, the buzz was back.

Spears opened the VMAs with a "performance" of her new single, "Gimme More." It was the entertainer's first live-ish TV appearance since shaving her head, checking in (and out, and in, and out, and...) of rehab, and generally making a tabloid editor's life that much more hectic. As an effort to reestablish a career, the "performance" flopped. As an effort to provide material for comic Sarah Silverman, who followed Spears on the show, the "performance" succeeded quite well.

The song-and-sloppy-dance routine also seemed to work wonders for MTV's on-demand cable service, which recorded 6 million streams for the VMAs telecast as of Monday afternoon, and MTV's clip-playing Website, which enjoyed its most-trafficked day ever on Monday, the network said.

No word if Spears got flowers or candy from MTV. From Kanye West, at least, she got some empathy, with the rapper charging Tuesday that the network "exploited" the publicly troubled pop star.

If it's any consolation to Spears, more people watched the VMAs the times she wore a snake to the show (10.8 million in 2001), and kissed Madonna (10.7 million in 2003).

It just so happened the third time wasn't the charm. For her, anyway.

Here's a look at other ratings highlights for the TV week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research stats:

• Are dog lovers boycotting the NFL? Is Faith Hill a poor substitute for Pink? Has David Beckham converted fans to his favorite field sport? Whatever the reason, pro football's opening-week prime-time games were way off from last season's debuts. A Thursday matchup on NBC between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints averaged 17.8 million gridiron fans, which is a lot of people, except last year's Thursday kickoff game averaged a lot more, 19.2 million. NBC's Sunday Night Football's regular-season premiere, pitting the New York Giants against the Dallas Cowboys, fared even worse when compared to 2006—18.2 million viewers compared to 22.6 million, a decline of nearly 20 percent.
• Relatively speaking, the NFL was still a winner for the otherwise Nielsen-challenged NBC. Thursday's game placed second for the week; Sunday's placed first.
• TNT's The Closer (8.2 million) topped all cable shows, even MTV's VMAs, despite star Kyra Sedgwick failure to wobble around in a spangly black bikini thing.
• Here's betting The Closer will top next week's cable rankings, too, at least among non-NFL action. Monday's season finale averaged 9.2 million viewers, TNT said. That number's not only a series best, per the network, it's a cable TV best for any series. 
• The naked truth about Vanessa Hudgens didn't seem to hurt a Saturday night dance-along version of Disney Channel's High School Musical 2 (5 million).
• Box-office star Ben Stiller's a prime-time draw, too. ABC's Sunday night offering of the actor's 2004 comedy Meet the Fockers (22nd place, 7.9 million) made for TV's most watched movie of the week.
• Why do the other GOP presidential contenders grumble at the mention of Fred Thompson? Maybe because the former Law & Order star drew an estimated 6 million viewers for his campaign-launching announcement on NBC's Tonight Show last Wednesday, while earlier that same night a Republican debate on Fox News averaged a mere 3.2 million.
• Katie Couric went all the way to Iraq, and all she got was her usual last-place finish in the network nightly news race. For the week, ABC's World News averaged 7.8 million viewers, edging NBC's Nightly News (7.78 million), and lapping Couric's Evening News on CBS (5.5 million).
• Jericho (98th place, 2.7 million) shouldn't feel so bad; nobody watches Heroes reruns (103rd place, 2.5 million), either.
• For those keeping score at home, CBS' Power of 10 (16th place, 8.1 million for Tuesday's episode; 24th place, 7.7 million for Wednesday's), and TBS' My Boys (1.4 million) got renewals to go along with their decent numbers. The Drew Carey-hosted Power of 10 has been reupped for midseason; the sitcom My Boys has been awarded an eight-episode second season. Also coming back for a second go-round: David Duchovny's new Showtime comedy Californication, which will be back for 12 more episodes next summer.
• My Network TV has a winner: Jail (114th place, 1.9 million), which is not to be confused for Fox's Cops (67th place, 4.4 million), even though the shows share a producer, not to mention a Rupert Murdoch lineage. In case you get confused, remember: The bad guys on Jail can't run away as far as the bad guys on Cops on account of they're in, you know, jail.
• My Network TV does not have a winner in the game-show Temptation (160th place, 726,000 viewers for its first episode; 172nd place, 618,000 viewers for its second episode), although at least panelist Justin Guarini seemed to be having fun. And/or enjoying employment. One of the two.
• ABC Family's drama series Lincoln Heights (1.6 million) hit new heights with its second-season premiere.
• Tim Gunn's new Bravo show, Guide to Style (982,000), wasn't Project Runway, but, more importantly, it wasn't Hey Paula, either.
• Saturday's prime-time premiere of Nick's new tween comedy, iCarly (3.5 million for the first episode; 3.7 million for the second), posted "one of" the network's most-watched live-action series premieres ever, a feat which is not nearly as unimpressive as the press release makes it sound. 
• Ratings for Whoopi Goldberg's first full week on ABC's The View won't be out until Thursday, but the early numbers are holding their own, and then some, against the Rosie O'Donnell era. While Golberg's first day was down compared to O'Donnell's first day, an estimated 3.4 million compared to 4.4 million, her second day was bigger than O'Donnell's second day (and Goldberg's first day), 3.7 million compared to 3.3 million. ABC estimates Sherri Shepherd's first day as cohost bumped the show up to 3.9 million viewers.

Overall, NBC aired enough pregame, postgame and in-game football action to put together a win as the most watched broadcast network, averaging 8.2 million viewers. CBS (6.8 million), Fox (5.5 million), ABC (5.4 million) and the CW (1.9 million) trailed.

USA (2.7 million) was cable's most watched prime-time network, followed by TNT (2.7 million) and Disney Channel (2.6 million).

Here's a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. NBC Sunday Night Football (New York Giants vs. Dallas), NBC, 18.2 million viewers
2. NBC NFL Thursday Special (New Orleans vs. Indianapolis), NBC, 17.8 million viewers
3. NBC NFL Thursday Pre-Kick, NBC, 13.6 million viewers
4. NBC Sunday Night Football Pre-Kick, NBC, 12.4 million viewers
5. 60 Minutes, CBS, 10.8 million viewers
6. The OT, Fox, 10.1 million viewers
7.  Without a Trace, CBS, 9.5 million viewers
8. CSI, CBS, 9.49 million viewers
9.  Football Night in America, NBC, 9.2 million viewers
10. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 9.1 million viewers