(Credit: Twitter.com/oprah)

Oprah issued an apology Feb. 13 after tweeting during the Feb. 12 Grammys “Every 1 who can please turn to OWN especially if u have a Neilsen box,” the New York Times reported. She also deleted the tweet.

OWN — the Oprah Winfrey Channel — is Oprah’s channel.

While the New York Times noted that request seemed “simple – if desperate-sounding,” it turns out it also is a “potentially serious violation of [Nielsen ratings] policy.”  Nielsen has a policy against “attempts to single out panel members to either change their viewing habits or otherwise influence or affect their reporting,” according to the New York Times.

Nielsen asked Oprah to delete her tweet and will review the ratings for Oprah’s OWN network during the time she tweeted asking for viewers, the Times reported.  Read more about this incident and previous issues with requests for Nielsen viewers here on the Times website.