49th Annual CMA Awards Led the Week in Television Overall on Twitter

ABC’s 49th Annual CMA Awards proved potent on social media, topping all televised events (including sports) on Twitter for the week of Nov. 2. According to Nielsen, the Nov. 4 event totaled 631,000 tweets written by 236,000 unique authors, which were seen by a unique audience of 6.36 million people (generating 70.56 million Twitter TV impressions). Some of the night’s big winners included Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton. Stapleton took home several awards especially Male Vocalist of the Year and New Artist of the Year and got much notice in performing his hit “Drink You Away” with pop superstar Justin Timberlake. Lambert was the most-talked about celebrity at the awards show as news of the end of her high-profile marriage with Blake Shelton had surfaced within the past week. Shelton has since been linked to fellow “Voice” judge/mentor Gwen Stefani. Comparatively from the year-ago CMA Awards, it generated 40 percent less tweets and, similarly like its ratio of television viewers year-to-year, a decline of 17 percent in unique Twitter audience.

Donald Trump was host of the Nov. 7 edition of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” (2.26 million Twitter users/146,000 tweets/61,000 unique authors/14.40 million impressions) as the late-night sketch show delivered its highest TV ratings in four years. The episode received dismal critical feedback. The lone positives were the reappearance of Larry David as Bernie Sanders and the music performances of Sia.

The SNL sketch Larry David had appeared in was a parody of the MSNBC “First in the South Democratic Candidate Forum” that took place on Nov. 6 (1.14 million Twitter users/81,000 tweets/26,000 unique authors/6.70 million impressions) and was hosted by Rachel Maddow. The real event itself reached the week’s top ten list of series and specials.

Seven of the top ten sports entries for the week belonged to NFL football. Philadelphia Eagles’ 33-27 overtime win over the Dallas Cowboys on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” from Nov. 8 was the week’s top sporting event. The game totaled 748,000 tweets written by 250,000 unique authors, which were seen by a unique audience of 6.17 million people (generating 73.39 million Twitter TV impressions). Almost every game featuring the Dallas Cowboys is highly watched but this game was more notable as it was the first to be played after the online publication of photos of a battered female’s injuries caused by defenseman Greg Hardy, formerly of the Carolina Panthers and currently of the Cowboys.

Most-Tweeted Minutes from the Top 3 Series and Specials:

• 6,400 Tweets were sent at 9:16pm EST on Wednesday, 11/4 about The 49th Annual CMA Awards following Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton’s performance of “Drink You Away”.
• 5,500 Tweets were sent at 9:46pm EST on Sunday, 11/8 about The Walking Dead after Maggie (Lauren Cohan) revealed that she is pregnant.
• 1,900 Tweets were sent at 12:05am EST on Sunday, 11/8 about Saturday Night Live after the cast parodied the “Hotline Bling” music video.

Most-Tweeted Minutes from the Top 3 Sports Events:

• 23,100 Tweets were sent at 11:57pm EST on Sunday, 11/8 about Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys after the Eagles’ Jordan Matthews caught a touchdown pass to defeat the Cowboys in overtime.
• 13,600 Tweets were sent at 12:21am EST on Tuesday 11/3 about Indianapolis Colts at Carolina Panthers after the Carolina Panthers scored a 52-yard field goal and defeated the Colts in overtime.
• 8,300 Tweets were sent at 4:44pm EST on Sunday, 11/8 about Green Bay Packers at Carolina Panthers after the Panther’s defeated the Packers.

According to Nielsen: Activity metrics (Unique Authors and Tweets) are a measure of relevant Twitter activity from three hours before, during and three hours after an episode’s initial broadcast, local time. Reach metrics (Unique Audience and Impressions) measure the audience of relevant Tweets ascribed to an episode from when the Tweets are sent until the end of the broadcast day at 5am. For the series and specials list, the data includes new/live primetime and late fringe episodes only and excludes sports events. Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings are only available for English-language U.S. Broadcast and Cable Networks.

Unique Audience – The total number of distinct Twitter accounts accruing at least one impression of one or more different Tweets ascribed to a TV episode.

Source: Nielsen