‘March Madness’ Dominates Social Media

The 2017 “March Madness” men’s NCAA college basketball tournament was a major player on social media Sunday, driving millions of Facebook and Twitter interactions, according to Nielsen.

The tourney’s March 19 social media onslaught was led by the TNT’s telecast of South Carolina’s upset win over Duke, which drew nearly 3 million social media interactions from more than 1.3 million unique users, according to Nielsen.

TNT’s Arkansas-North Carolina telecast drew 1.2 million Facebook and Twitter interactions from 654,000 unique users, said network officials. Three CBS "March Madness" telecasts – Wichita State-Kentucky, Michigan-Louisville and Michigan State-Kansas -- all finished among the top five most social live sports events for the night, according to Nielsen. 

Overall, Sunday's coverage of the tournament across four networks averaged 11.9 million viewers, an increase of 34% over last year's coverage, according to Nielsen. 

AMC’s The Walking Dead was the most talked about entertainment show on social media Sunday, generating 482,000 interactions from 307,000 unique users, Nielsen said.

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.