Sunday night was a busy one. The Grammy awards saw its second-largest audience in nearly 30 years—an event that featured several moving, show-stopping tributes to the late Whitney Houston.

That so many TV viewers and Twitter users had turned their attention to the Grammys was probably a good thing for Oprah Winfrey.

On Sunday night, she tweeted: “Every 1 who can please turn to OWN especially if u have a Neilsen [sic] box.” Many Twitter users cried foul—and it wasn’t because she misspelled Nielsen. Turns out, you’re not allowed to reach out to people with the Nielsen boxes in their homes; it’s against the Nielsen rules. In fact, it’s a “potentially serious violation,” according to The New York Times.

Oprah deleted the tweet and apologized on Monday, saying: “I removed the tweet at the request of Nielsen. I intended no harm and apologize for the reference.” The apology came after a conversation between OWN executives and people at Nielsen, the Times reported.

Prior to issuing the apology, Oprah defended herself in a series of @ messages to Twitter users who had criticized the media icon. She pointed out to one person that “please” was used as a courtesy, not a beg. In response to two other Twitter users, Oprah tweeted: “Unethical a little harsh don't u think? Seemed like it made sense to me. Sorry if u're offended.”

Her @ replies probably had considerable reach. Oprah has more than 9 million followers—and she’s, you know, Oprah. Beyond that, the people to whom she responded directly have follower counts ranging from a few dozen to about a thousand .

An interesting aside: If you Google “Oprah apology,” the first item is something from the Queen of Talk’s website—the Art of an Apology. Here’s the story. What do you think—did Oprah follow the advice that appeared on Oprah.com?

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