American talk show host Oprah Winfrey has issued an apology after begging viewers to tune into her channel while the 54th Annual Grammy Awards was on air.

The 58-year-old invited followers to turn off music's big night and switch to her network, OWN, Ace Showbiz reported.

"Everyone who can please turn to OWN especially if u have a Neilsen box. Commercial Grammy people..u can turn to OWN," she had posted on Twitter.

But ratings compilers at Nielsen organisation demanded Winfrey to remove her tweet and her posts were later removed.

"I removed the tweet at the request of Nielsen. I intended no harm and apologize for the reference."