500,000 fewer people watched the Miley Cyrus-hosted VMAs this year

Miley Cyrus, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift, feuds, crying, and 10 Viacom channels still couldn't attract an audience that topped last year's VMA awards.

Despite all the chatter surrounding Sunday's MTV VMAs and the fact that it aired on six more Viacom channels, the show attracted 9.8 million total viewers. That's 500,000 less viewers than the 10.3 million who tuned into last year's show.

While no network wants to see its audience decrease, MTV does like looking for the silver lining. It was ranked No. 1 among the channel's younger-skewing audience demographic of 12-year-olds to 34-year-olds.

 Also, the show generated a lot of social chatter. It was the most tweeted program in the history of Nielsen's social ratings.