A recap:

8 p.m.: Madonna kicks off the show, broadcast live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, with her nominated single, "Music," complete with a cameo from pint-size rapper Lil' Bow Wow. In a business short on sustainable star power, the music industry needs Madonna more than she needs it. Her performance is sublime, smart and loaded with star power.

8:06 p.m.: Host Jon Stewart seems almost catatonic with his first few jokes. He regains the crowd with an Eminem riff: " I met him backstage [pause] and he is really gay."

8:08 p.m.: Madonna promptly loses the best pop female vocal award to Macy Gray, who's still riding on her 1999 hit "I Try." (The Grammy qualifying year, for some unfathomable reason, goes from October to September.)

8:11 p.m.: CBS airs its first plug for the Eminem and Elton John performance.

8:12 p.m.: A Target ad featuring Devo's long-forgotten but beloved "It's a Wonderful World" airs.

8:15 p.m.: Lil' Bow Wow makes a second appearance, this time in a Twix candy-bar commercial.

8:19 p.m.: Teen chat rooms across the country explode as Justin Timberlake from 'N Sync debuts his new crew cut. The group, which performs the forgettable ballad "This I Promise You," remains in serious need of a stylist.

8:25 p.m.: Steely Dan confuse the country by winning a Grammy 26 years after they should have.

8:26 p.m.: CBS again urges fans to stay tuned for the upcoming Eminem and Elton John performance.

8:27 p.m. A beer commercial suggests, in only somewhat tongue-in-cheek fashion, that a quarter of a century ago a black DJ at a block party spilled his Heineken -- yes, his Heineken -- and inadvertently created the art of scratching records.

8:29 p.m.: Sugar Ray lead singer Mark McGrath stars in a regrettable Candie's ad.

8:36 p.m.: Destiny's Child win for best R&B duo or group vocal performance and give the first thanks to God as well as the first thanks to an artist-management company.

8:37 p.m.: CBS airs its third plug for the upcoming Eminem/Elton John duet.

8:42 p.m.: A public service announcement features the mother of slain gay college student Matthew Shepard urging viewers to think of the consequences of words like "faggot" and "queer" -- strong evidence of the influence on CBS of MTV, the hip face of corporate parent Viacom.

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