Democratic Debate Dominates Social Media

By R. Thomas Umstead
published

CBS’ Democratic Presidential Debate dominated social media chatter surrounding television shows Saturday night while the UFC 193 pay-per-view event was the most tweeted sports event of the day, according to Nielsen.

The Democratic Debate drew 815,000 tweets reaching an unduplicated audience of 4.9 million viewers to top all entertainment-based shows Saturday night, according to Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings Daily report. NBC’s Saturday Night Live drew 25,000 tweets to finished second, followed by cable shows Doctor Who (BBC America) and Ash vs. Evil Dead (Starz) and CBS’ 48 Hours.

RELATED:Interest in the presidential race is driving ratings for the big news networks -- and the niche nets, as well; click here (subscription required).

The UFC 193 PPV event, which featured Holly Holm’s upset knockout over UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, pinned down 927,000 tweets reaching more than 6 million unique Twitter users to top three ABC and one CBS college football telecasts for the most social media sports event of the day, according to Nielsen.

R. Thomas Umstead
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.