Lil Wayne, John Legend, Pharrell Williams, Nicki Minaj, and Chris Rock all helped the BET Awards become one of the most watched award shows of the year.
According to The Wrap, The BET Awards pulled in a staggering 7.9 million viewers, besting this year’s Golden Globes, Billboard Music Awards and People’s Choice Awards.
The The Guardian Liberty Voices the show even pulled in more numbers than the NBA Finals. In addition to it’s record breaking numbers, it also was a huge hit on twitter, bringing in over 11 million tweets related to the BET Awards.
The BET Awards 2014 was the second most watched Bet Awards in history; it only trails 2009’s Bet Awards which took place a couple of days after the passing of Michael Jackson.
The show showcased some of the year’s biggest talent in Hip-Hop and R&b. Pharrell Williams opened the show with his new single “Come and Get It Bae” and while the song’s featured artist, Miley Cyrus, was absent, rap legend Missy Elliot made a surprise appearance and remixed the song.
The show also included performances by Jennifer Hudson, Trey Songs, Chris Brown, Jhene Aiko and a closing performance of “Partition” from Beyoncé and Jay-Z via satellite.