Reports called it one of the worst MTV Video Music Awards ever. So kids loved it.

The 2011 event drew 12.4 million viewers, making it the biggest audience ever for the event and in fact the most-watched program in MTV history, altogether up 9 percent from last year’s show.

The network said it was the most watched non-sports telecast on cable of the year.

Still, there was little to recommend it, save for a stellar performance from Adele, who nonetheless went home empty handed (save for three technical awards for her video). There was one surprise news item: that Beyonce is going to have a Be-aby. And another in the assertion that Britney Spears is some elder artist, or that Amy Winehouse, good as she was, would go down with the greats of all time.

The show began with an overhyped and unnecessary monologue from Lady Gaga in her supposedly groundbreaking gender-bending guise as Jo Calderone. Seems she doesn’t remember Annie Lennox doing just about the same thing in the Eurythmics (she also dressed as Minnie Mouse before Katy Perry got the idea).