Skip to main content

Which TV shows were most-popular last season? Here’s what viewers tweeted

Walking Dead Bring Back The Dead
No surprise, The Walking Dead was one of the most-tweeted TV shows during the 2014-2015 season. But another show, Empire, actually received more tweets. Image used with permission by copyright holder
If a television show is popular, people are most likely tweeting about it. Partnering with Twitter, Nielsen Social, which measures social TV engagement, presented its latest numbers for the 2014-15 TV season (September 1, 2014 to May 24, 2015). Here’s what viewers were tweeting about.

The top-tweeted programming overall (as well as the most tweeted-about sports event) was Super Bowl XLIX, while the top special event was the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. Three TV series, Saturday Night Live, The Walking Dead, and Empire, snagged the top series episode, top series premiere, and most-tweeted series episode, respectively.

nielsen-biggest-moments-twitter-2014-2015
Credit: Nielsen Social
Recommended Videos

While AMC’s The Walking Dead had the highest average Twitter viewers per episode (4.31 million viewers), Fox’s Empire took Twitter by storm. The show’s debut season was only the fifth most-viewed show by average audience (2.64 million viewers), but the series averaged 627,000 tweets per episode in its debut season, beating The Walking Dead in that category. Empire‘s two-part season finale generated 2.4 million tweets. The final season of Parks and Recreation made the list as well, showing that TV shows can be popular out of the gate or even at the end of their run.

nielsen-top-ten-series-twitter-2014-2015
Credit: Nielsen Social
Please enable Javascript to view this content

Music was the hottest topic on Twitter when it came to specials. Six music-related specials made the top-ten in 2014-15. The Grammy Awards ranked first in total viewers (13.3 million viewers), and even more people tweeted about it (13.4 million). The 2014 American Music Awards, the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, the 48th Annual Country Music Association Awards, the IHeartRadio Music Awards, and the BET Hip Hop Awards 2014 also made the top-ten. The Oscars and the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards, as well as Bruce Jenner’s interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC’s 20/20 and Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, rounded out the top spots.

nielsen-top-ten-specials-twitter-2014-2015
Credit: Nielsen Social

In sports, football was in full domination, mainly because the season falls entirely inside a typical TV season. Eight football events were in the top-ten, and six in particular were professional National Football League events. Super Bowl XLIX (16.13 million viewers, 25.1 million tweets) nabbed the top spot. College football managed to grab two spots, with the 2015 NCAA championship game between Ohio State and Oregon, and the Rose Bowl between Florida State and Oregon in the top ten. The only non-football events to make the list were the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, and the NCAA basketball championship between Duke and Wisconsin.

nielsen-top-ten-sports-twitter-2014-2015
Credit: Nielsen Social
Jose Alvarez
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Introduced to tech at a young age, Jose has grown attached to video games in particular. He has covered topics such as…
I paid Meta to ‘verify’ me — here’s what actually happened
An Instagram profile on an iPhone.

In the fall of 2023 I decided to do a little experiment in the height of the “blue check” hysteria. Twitter had shifted from verifying accounts based (more or less) on merit or importance and instead would let users pay for a blue checkmark. That obviously went (and still goes) badly. Meanwhile, Meta opened its own verification service earlier in the year, called Meta Verified.

Mostly aimed at “creators,” Meta Verified costs $15 a month and helps you “establish your account authenticity and help[s] your community know it’s the real us with a verified badge." It also gives you “proactive account protection” to help fight impersonation by (in part) requiring you to use two-factor authentication. You’ll also get direct account support “from a real person,” and exclusive features like stickers and stars.

Read more
Here’s how to delete your YouTube account on any device
How to delete your YouTube account

Wanting to get out of the YouTube business? If you want to delete your YouTube account, all you need to do is go to your YouTube Studio page, go to the Advanced Settings, and follow the section that will guide you to permanently delete your account. If you need help with these steps, or want to do so on a platform that isn't your computer, you can follow the steps below.

Note that the following steps will delete your YouTube channel, not your associated Google account.

Read more
How to download Instagram photos for free
Instagram app running on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Instagram is amazing, and many of us use it as a record of our lives — uploading the best bits of our trips, adventures, and notable moments. But sometimes you can lose the original files of those moments, leaving the Instagram copy as the only available one . While you may be happy to leave it up there, it's a lot more convenient to have another version of it downloaded onto your phone or computer. While downloading directly from Instagram can be tricky, there are ways around it. Here are a few easy ways to download Instagram photos.

Read more