One has to appreciate the irony.

On the same night as the Grammy Awards on Global TV, Rob VanWinkle (a.k.a. Vanilla Ice) still managed to make headlines as the debut of his reality show, The Vanilla Ice Project, propelled DIY Network Canada to its highest single-day audience ever.

The show premiered with back-to-back episodes starting at 8 p.m. on DIY, drawing 94,300 viewers in the 18-to-49 demo for the first half-hour and a very respectable 113,100 viewers in the same demo for the second episode (BBM Canada PPM Data, Mo-Su 2a-2a).

Thanks to the prime-time boost from Ice, the channel reached its highest AMA (24,500) since it launched in October 2009.

The Vanilla Ice Project follows VanWinkle as he renovates a lavish California home. A campaign promoting the show has been in-market since Feb. 7 (ending tomorrow), using national TV, radio and print ads in the Toronto Star, Calgary Herald, Vancouver Province and Vancouver Sun.

DIY Network Canada is in the midst of a month-long free preview, reaching 6.2 million homes across Canada, according to Shaw Media.