( CNN ) -- Maybe it was Beyonce , or maybe it was the Beatles . ( Actually , it was probably both . ) The Grammy Awards attracted 28.5 million viewers to CBS on Sunday night , which is essentially a modern-day record for the annual music awards show . CBS described it in a press release as `` the second largest audience for the awards broadcast since 1993 . '' Awards shows in general have been on a ratings upswing in recent years . One oft-cited reason is that , since they 're big live events , they stand out in an increasingly on-demand television world . Sunday 's telecast would have been the biggest since 1993 , period , were it not for the tragic circumstances of the 2012 Grammys . That year , Whitney Houston died less than 24 hours before the awards telecast , causing a dramatic surge in viewership the next day . ( The average viewership was about 40 million . ) The Grammys are typically the second most popular awards show of the year behind the Academy Awards . This year 's average viewership was just a smidge higher than last year 's average of 28.4 million . ( CBS pointed out that a more apples-to-apples comparison was between this year and 2010 , the last time the Grammys were scheduled in January instead of February to avoid the Winter Olympics . In 2010 , 25.9 million viewers tuned in . ) For CBS , the ratings increase this year may justify the network 's controversial decision to tape-delay the Grammys in western parts of the United States . Most awards shows are broadcast live coast-to-coast , something that matters more than ever nowadays because millions of people like to converse about the shows on the Internet while they 're watching . But CBS continues to delay the Grammys until prime time begins out West , when it says more people are at home and able to watch . CBS ' news release on Monday cited data from Nielsen 's SocialGuide service that labeled the Grammys `` the biggest social television event of the 2013-2014 TV season to date , with Twitter recording more than 15.2 million tweets during the Eastern and Central time zone broadcast alone . '' The network did not say how many tweets there were during the Mountain and Pacific time zone broadcast . With regard to the West Coast tape-delay , Chris Ender , a CBS spokesman , pointed out that the Grammys is a performance-driven show , and that the social media chatter during the East Coast broadcast `` often drives more awareness and interest to viewers elsewhere . '' `` We 're continuing to do what works , delivering a broadcast that can be watched by the most amount of viewers , '' Ender said .
CBS described it as ` ` second largest audience for the awards broadcast since 1993 '' and typically the second most popular awards show behind the Academy Awards . Network reported there were 10 million tweets during Awards and Central broadcast .