Perhaps CMT knew what it was doing when it asked Hanna Montana to host its 2008 music awards. This year's show had over 35% more watchers over last year's show. For CMT, it gets better.

The audience stayed with the whole show, a problem for the ACMs and CMAs in past years, receiving an average 9.1 million viewers. The red carpet preview show, hosted by CMT's Katie Cook and Lance Smith, doubled its viewers and CMT.com set a record with over 26 million hits on Monday. The show was streamed live on the website.

CMT also gave $70,000 to charities as part of its "One Country" initiative. The winners of each award received a donation of $2,500. Charities benefiting include St. Jude's Children Hospital and the Nashville Humane Society. The full list is available here.

CMT launched its new series "Can You Duet?" following the show and it became the highest debuting show in CMT history. The show is produced by the makers of "American Idol."

Taylor Swift was the big winner of the CMT Awards, taking Female Video of the Year and Music Video of the Year for "Our Song."

Labels: CMT