‘The Walking Dead’ Fall Finale Tops Week’s Series and Specials on Twitter

The fall finale of AMC’s zombie drama “The Walking Dead” was the top entry on Twitter’s series and specials list for the week of Nov. 23. According to Nielsen, the Nov. 29 telecast totaled 488,000 tweets written by 125,000 unique authors, which were seen by a unique audience of 3.67 million people (generating 31.10 million Twitter TV impressions). Comparatively from the year-ago fall finale, it was down 37 percent in generated tweets and down 29 percent in unique Twitter audience.

As stark as the year-to-year declines were in social media impact for “The Walking Dead”, the week’s next two entries also saw significant decreases: BET’s “2015 Soul Train Awards” (2.91 million Unique Audience/471,000 tweets/119,000 unique authors/25.63 million impressions) from Nov. 29 was down 11 percent in generated tweets and down 13 percent in unique Twitter audience; the 2-hour 21st season finale of ABC’s “ Dancing with the Stars” (1.79 million Unique Audience/130,000 tweets/42,000 unique authors/8.35 million impressions) from Nov. 24 — which saw Bindi Irwin, the daughter of the late famed “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, crowned champion — was down by almost half in generated tweets (-52 percent) and in unique Twitter audience (-49 percent).

Seven NFL football games reached the top ten sports entries of the week. The most social of them all, as well as of all sports entries, was the Carolina Panthers’s 33-14 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on CBS on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, Nov. 26). According to Nielsen, the game totaled 1.01 million tweets written by 417,000 unique authors, which were seen by a unique audience of 7.82 million people (generating 104.52 million Twitter TV impressions). The Panthers extended their season record to 11-0 while Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo was sidelined yet again re-injuring his collarbone — the same injury that kept him out of action for Weeks 3-10 — and will be out for the rest of the season, making 2015 a lost year for “America’s Team.”

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

• 9,400 Tweets were sent at 9:32pm EST on Sunday, 11/29 about The Walking Dead after a confrontation between Ron (Austin Abrams) and Carl (Chandler Riggs).
• 6,000 Tweets were sent at 9:51pm EST on Sunday, 11/29 about the 2015 Soul Train Awards during Boyz II Men’s performance.
• 2,400 Tweets were sent at 11:01pm EST on Tuesday, 11/24 about Dancing with the Stars after Bindi Irwin won the competition and was awarded the Mirror Ball Trophy.

Most-Tweeted Minutes from the Top 3 Sports Events:

• 30,900 Tweets were sent at 5:45pm EST on Thursday, 11/26 about Carolina Panthers at Dallas Cowboys after the Panthers’ defense intercepted a pass from Cowboys’ quarterback, Tony Romo.
• 42,000 Tweets were sent at 11:59pm EST on Sunday, 11/29 about New England Patriots at Denver Broncos after Broncos running back, CJ Anderson, scored the game winning touchdown in overtime.
• 12,000 Tweets were sent at 2:46pm EST on Thursday, 11/26 about Philadelphia Eagles at Detroit Lions after Lions’ wide receiver, Calvin Johnson, scored a touchdown.

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