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Britney's bungled performance drives big traffic to MTV
Internet's version of rubberneckers gather in big enough numbers to break MTV.com's previous best days for traffic.
Spears in happier times.
(Credit: Ellen von Unwerth/Jive Records 2007)Rising up out of the chaos and career collapse that was Britney Spears' performance on Sunday are MTV's traffic numbers.
The cable channel's Video Music Awards were bad for Britney but a boon for Viacom, MTV's parent company. Users flocked to MTV.com to watch Spears' on-stage misadventures.
On Sunday, MTV.com saw 2.6 million visitors log on, a tally that smashed the site's previous record for daily Web site traffic. The site also delivered 7 million video streams on Monday as of 3:30 p.m. ET, which topped its previous best day of 6.7 million.
In a spectacle that will likely serve as an entertainment-industry cautionary tale, Spears kicked off the VMA awards with an underwhelming dance and song performance. The event was supposed to breath life back into the star's flagging career but likely fell far short of that goal.
The pudgy Spears, dressed in black bikini, flubbed her song-and-dance number by forgetting words to music she was only required to lip sync. She also lumbered across the stage with uninspired "dance" moves.
