According to the New York Post, POISON singer Bret Michaels claims the producers of the 2009 Tony Awards intentionally broadcast a stage mishap that nearly killed him in a bid to boost the show’s ratings.

Michaels - who suffered a brain hemorrhage after getting creamed by a piece of moving scenery - yesterday filed papers charging CBS “could have prevented the footage...from airing via the standard seven-second broadcast delay.’’

But “the defendants took no such measures - presumably because the incident would lead to greater publicity and ratings for the show,” the Manhattan federal court filing says.

Michaels - who is suing for up to $50 million - says that beside his injuries, he suffered “humiliation when video of the incident immediately spread across the Internet.’’

PRLog.com has since followed-up this anouncement, stating that "the third-party plaintiffs do not dispute the extent of Michaels’ injuries, but rather simply seek to shift the blame – denying any negligence on their part and alleging that Rock of Ages is either directly responsible for Michaels’ injuries, or must indemnify the defendants if a jury determines they were at fault."

“This is a desperate act. The producers of the Tony Awards and their co-defendants cannot credibly deny that they almost killed Bret while he was performing with the cast of Rock of Ages, so instead they are trying to point the finger elsewhere,” said Alex Weingarten, managing partner of Weingarten Brown LLP, counsel for Bret Michaels. “CBS and the rest of the defendants are just grasping at straws. It was their negligence that injured Bret, and it was then their decision to try to profit from his injuries by joking about them and playing them for ratings. We did not drag Rock of Ages into this, and Bret has nothing but the utmost respect for them, their production and the performers who were on stage and in harm’s way with him that night.”

After the injury, Michaels’ repeatedly attempted to resolve the matter amicably and out-of-court in an effort to avoid adding to the already substantial publicity surrounding the accident. The Tony Awards could have – but did not – take advantage of the standard broadcast delay to prevent the video from being transmitted. The incident became an Internet mainstay, and at one point was one of the 10 most-viewed clips on YouTube. The Tony Awards and its producers have yet to apologize to Michaels, let alone take responsibility for the severe injuries they caused. Instead, defendants have sought to point the blame first at Michaels himself, and now at Rock of Ages.

CNN has posted footage of the incident, including slow-motion recaps. Check it out below: