2012 Grammys Deliver Landmark Ratings - West Coast Delay And All

Show of hands, who's surprised that last night's Grammy telecast was not just the night's most watched program, but the telecast's highest rating in years?

This may well be a rare occasion when the people closest to producing a show would trade its impressive one-night viewership just to have one person back. The 54th Grammy Awards were watched Sunday night on by 39.9 million viewers - the biggest Grammy audience since Michael Jackson's 1984 awards sweep, and enough to deliver unto CBS a 14.1 rating among the 18-49 adult demographic, according to Entertainment Weekly. That marked a 41-percent leap over last year's show and the highest rating since 1990, but it was sadly probably in large part due to an expected tribute by Jennifer Hudson to the late Whitney Houston. A six-time Grammy winner, Houston was found dead at age 48 in her Beverly Hills Hilton hotel room's bathtub the night before.

Following the yeraly "In Memoriam video montage," Hudson delivered a faithful, stirring rendition of "I Will Always Love You," the Dolly Parton hit that Houston made an iconic performance of her own with a double Grammy-winning cover for 1992's "The Bodyguard" soundtrack.

Popping a number like that probably also means that despite complaints, this year's experimental West Coast delay probably isn't going anywhere for subsequent Grammy telecasts. The show aired at 8 PM on the West Coast, with other time zones' viewers spoiling many results and performances, such as Adele's six-category sweep and powerful welcome-back performance of "Rolling In The Deep," via social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. But with a rating like that, the delay is probably here to stay.

Oh, some other stuff was on last night, too. And their anemic ratings must be taken with a grain of salt.

ABC's "Desperate Housewives" (6.3 million, 1.8 rating) and "Pan Am" (2.7 million, 0.7) and NBC's special two-hour, donkey-semen-free "Fear Factor" (3.7 million, 1.5) all marked respective series-low numbers. "Desperate Housewives" in particular plummeted 31 percent and "Pan Am" 44 percent. Only one show held up decently against music's big night, and that was ABC's "One Upon A Time," watched by 8.6 million for a 3.0 rating.