Hello, everybody. It was ladies' night Sunday at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, as Beyonce earned a record-setting six awards -- the most for any female -- including Song of the Year for "Single Ladies" and Best female Pop Vocal Performance for "Halo" while Taylor Swift picked up four including Album of the Year honors for "Fearless". Meanwhile, Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" received Record of the Year while the Zac Brown Brand was named Best New Artist.

The night's other winners include Green Day (Rock Album, "21st Century Breakdown"), Jay-Z and Rihanna ("Run This Town"), and Stephen Colbert (Comedy Album, "A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!"), who brought out the latest gadget which I'll get to in a bit.

There were great performances left and right, but one poignant moment belonged to Michael Jackson's children Prince and Paris as they paid tribute to their departed father; that followed the 3-D musical tribute of "Earth Song" by Smokey Robinson, Carrie Underwood (also a winner herself), Jennifer Hudson, Usher, and Celine Dion.

Of course, the fashions were all in 2-D; the best-dressed went to Rihanna (Elie Saab), Swift (Kaufman Franco), Fergie (looking busty and leggy in Emilio Pucci), Pink (Tony Ward), and Katy Perry (Zac Posen). Of course Lady Gaga was guaranteed worst-dressed, but I thought Ciara also looked great...in 1-D!

Now that Grammy fever is over for another year, first thing tomorrow morning it'll be Oscar fever as the nominations for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards will be out. I'll have the main categories on my Twitter page with the complete rundown on this blog.

As I hinted earlier, Stephen Colbert opened the show reading the nominees for the first award on the newest product Apple introduced last week but won't be out till the spring: the iPad. In other words, it's a supersized version of the iPod Touch though it will have the same capabilities except taking calls.

The wi-fi version will come out first in late March with the 3G version to follow in April, and the starting price: $500. I think this will sell very well unlike their last tablet computer, the Newton MessagePad, in the '90s; there were scenes of it in action in "Under Siege 2."

The question now is: How will Apple promote the iPad? There are rumors about a commercial to air during Super Bowl XLIV, but Apple isn't saying anything. Just like their groundbreaking Macintosh ad in 1984, they prefer to keep things hush-hush until kickoff when the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints clash for the Vince Lombardi Trophy with Carrie Underwood belting the national anthem and halftime belonging to The Who. And of course, growing up in a certain part of the country, you know who I'm rooting for (Saints).

And last but not least...Miss Virginia, Caressa Cameron, was crowned Miss America 2010 on Saturday. But...did anyone watch? Or for that matter, did anyone really care?

Miss America has always been the Super Bowl of beauty pageants for over eight decades, but let's face it, folks: Ratings for televised pageants are not what they used to be 10, 20, 30, or even 40 years ago.

Once upon a time, the Miss America, Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Universe pageants were definitely the original must-see TV for men, because there was so much eye candy on one stage in one night. And the viewership was definitely eye-popping: upwards to 20 million viewers.

But then came cable in the 1970's, offering us soft-core fare in the late night hours; home video would later follow in the '80s.

The pageants still scored modest numbers well into the '90s...until the Internet came along, providing us unlimited access to much more eye candy with just a click of the mouse! That's when the suffering really began, followed by "Maxim" and other men's magazines to help contribute to the ratings slide.

Over the last decade or so, Miss America went from its longtime home on NBC back to ABC for a few more years until moving to two places not known for airing beauty pageants: CMT and now TLC. And to rub salt in the wound even further, Atlantic City would be traded for Las Vegas as the pageant's new home base.

(UPDATE: It was announced in May that after six years of being on cable, the Miss America pageant is returning to ABC in 2011; there's also a possibility that they may move it back home to Atlantic City where it belongs!)

In the mid-'90s, Donald Trump acquired the Miss Universe franchise; in 2003, they all moved from CBS to NBC after 40-plus years. I remember living in the Mississippi coast around the time they had the 1990 Miss Teen USA pageant; with 51 of the most beautiful teenage girls descending on our area, it was like as if we played host to the world's largest beach party! By the way, that year's crown went to Bridgette Wilson, who would later marry tennis superstar Pete Sampras.

To sum things up: Are televised beauty pageants dead after over 50 years? Not really, but they are on life support. It's just that the world is full of very sexy people...only that there is no one distinguishable as Bert Parks to serenade them after being crowned. So long and stay strong.