‘Country Music Awards’ Slays ‘The Walking Dead’ on Social Media

Broadcast network CBS’s coverage of the 52nd Academy of Country Music Awards drew the most social media interactions for a TV show on Sunday, outdistancing the seventh season finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead, according to Nielsen.

The Country Music Awards drew 2.2 million Twitter and Facebook interactions from more than 1.3 million unique social media accounts, besting The Walking Dead, which drew 1.8 million social media interactions from 967,000 unique accounts, according to Nielsen.

HBO’s drama series Big Little Lies, Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Atlanta and ABC’s Once Upon A Time rounded out the top five most social TV shows on Sunday.

ESPN’s Chicago Cubs-St. Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball opening day telecast, and its coverage of the Mississippi State-South Carolina NCAA Women’s college basketball tournament finals dominated social media traffic for live sports events, with each telecast averaging more than 1 million social media interactions, said network officials.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.