How Social Media Ranks Fall TV's Hit Shows

22 october 3, 2011 | Advertising Age THE MEDIA ISSUE How social media ranks fall TV's hit shows Weasked Nielsen to tell us the best-rated series* from the start of the fallTV season-and then had buzz-tracker Trendrr.tv and check-in service GetGlue give us their numbers. Here's how and why they do and don't match up NELSEN TRENDRR.TV GETGLUE RATINGS SOCIAL BUZZ CНECK-INS SOMEEPISODES OFSHOWS BECOMESOCIAL EVENTS SOMESHOWS' STARS ARE BETTER SOCIAL SALESPEOPLE Dancing with the Stars (ABC, Sept. 19) Two and a Half Men Two and a Half Men The "Two and a Half Men" season premiere became a social flashpoint thanks to the departure of Charlie Sheen; fans (and nonfans) wanted to render their verdict on his absence and his replacement. (CBS, Sept. 19) 16.7 (CBS, Sept. 19) 510,175 19,801 New "Two and a Half Men" star Ashton Kutcher, for instance, has more than 77 million followers on Twitter. Dancing with the Stars (ABC, Sept. 19) Dancing with the Stars (ABC, Sept. 19) Big Bang Theory, 2 episodes 16,277 average (32,554 total) SOMESHOWS HAVEMORE SOCIAL НОOKS' Reality competitions give social-chatterers plenty to latch onto and comment on-from favorite judges and contestants (especially when it comes to elimination time) to specific challenges and even wardrobe malfunctions (hello, Nancy Grace!). 12.3 185,681 (CBS, Sept. 22) 3 DIFFERENT DEMOS SOCIALIZE DIFFERENTLY NCIS Criminal Minds Ratings champ "NCIS" is fronted by 60-year-old Mark Harmon; fans of the show See above for aggregate score for the two back-to-back BBT episodes (CBS, Sept. 20) 12.2 (CBS, Sept. 21) 146,481 and the networkit airs on (CBS) tend to skew older- and less likely to be tweet- happy or hip to new services like GetGlue. 2 Broke Girls (CBS, Sept. 19) Dancingwith the Stars Results Show (ABC, Sept. 20) Two and a Half Men (CBS, Sept. 19) 11.5 90,259 10,732 SOME NETWORKSARE PUSHING SOCIAL MORE THANOTHERS SOME NETWORKS ARE REWARDING THEIR MOST SOCIAL FANS NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS, Sept. 20) Big Bang Theory, episode 1 (CBS, Sept. 22) Dancing with theStars Results Show (ABC, Sept. 20)6,901 10.3 52,809 Is your favorite show promoting an official Twitter hashtag-like #2BrokeGirls"-onscreen and in off-network promotions? That can make a big difference in social buzz. CBS, for instance, incentivizes viewers of "The Big Bang Theory" to check in to the show on GetGlue by sponsoring "BBT" collectible stickers that GetGlue mails out to superfans. Dancingwith the Stars Results Show (ABC, Sept. 20) 9.8 Big Bang Theory, episode 2 (CBS, Sept. 22) NCIS 49,391 (CBS, Sept. 20) 5,769 Source Nielsen Househokd Ratings Live+SD) Source Trendr The Trendrtv Total Activity score includes tweet volume, public Facebook updates and Getue check ins Source: Getciue. Viewers can "check in" to shows at GetClue.com on through GetGlue's sute of free moble apps "For the purposes ofthis comparison, we lookedat new andreturning primetime series. News, sports and specialevents programmingareencluded SO WHY DO NETWORKS SEEM TO CARE SO MUCH ABOUT SOCIAL TV? Show-to-show social-TV ratings might not always correlate to Nielsen ratings in a linear sense, but rising and falling social engagement from week to week for individual shows can be very illuminating for networks. "Social buzz does tend to signal tune-inintent," says Trendrr CEO Mark Ghuneim. "People who are socially engaged witha show this week are much more likely to also tune in next week." Networks are increasingly making the case to advertisers that a highly engaged audience is icing on the cake of solid ratings-icing worthy paying a premium for. Sinking socialengagement over time canserve as the canary ina coal mine for network execs. For instance, declining socialengagement for former social-TV champ "Glee" signaled that the show was losing steam. Last year's season premiere garnered over half amillion tweets; this year's season premiere dropped by roughly 200,000 tweets-and Nielsenratings fell 29%. -SIMON DUMENCO