I looked up the most relevant pop stars of our generation and ranked them in order from 1 to 20 based off of a point system. the viewership numbers were in the millions so I rounded up to the nearest whole million (5.7M goes up to 6M, 6.4M goes down to 6M).

For every event that they PERFORMED at, points were added to their total. If the pop star was a featured artist (say, Rihanna being Eminem's feature @ the 2010 VMAs) then their points were cut in half for that particular event. If the artist was part of a group (Fergie with BEP, Beyoncé with DC) then their points were cut in half. If they didn't perform their own song but a tribute (Alicia Keys tributing Etta James at the 2012 Grammys) then their points were cut in half. If they didn't perform on the main-stage (Nicki Minaj doing the VMA preshow in 2010 or Katy Perry doing the side stage in 2008) their points for that were cut into 1/4. If the popstar was the feature but performed twice in one night then their points remained unpenalized (Britney being featured twice at the BBA 2011, during Rihanna & Nicki's sets). If the pop star did not PERFORM (Gaga @ the 2010 VMAs, Britney 2011) then they received 0 points for that event.

The pop star had to perform at both the Grammys & the VMAs between 2000-2012 to qualify for this list while the other events were additional bonuses to their score.