The Charts: The Walking Dead Does Not Top All the Charts for Its Season Finale

walking-dead-season-5-artAMC’s The Walking Dead may have had another record setting performance in the ratings for its Season 5 finale, but it did not dominate the social networks as expected.  The show slipped to the Number 4 slot in the Nielsen Twitter Ratings (beat out by the iHeart Radio Awards, Kid’s Choice Awards, and Pretty Little Liars), and for the first time this season while airing a new episode it did not top the General Sentiment charts that measure activity across the social networks relating to the live broadcast (it was beat out by Pretty Little Liars).  Of course it did top the cable chart of total viewers and a repeat of the prior week’s episode made it to the Number 20 slot, so it scored quite well in the most important categories to the advertisers that pay for commercial time.  And with its 8.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic based on the overnights, it blew away everything else on television, so slipping in the social network charts is hardly a concern.  And I expect it to continue to perform well when it returns in Fall and also expect the spin-off series–Fear the Walking Dead–to place prominently in these charts when it bows in late summer.

On the broadcast network charts based on the rating in the 18-49 demographic, only one genre entry place in the Top 25–Once Upon A Time–after three showed up there last week.  The Last Man on Earth (twice, because it aired two eps) and Agents of SHIELD both fell out, and OUaT slipped notably after it only pulled a 1.7 rating in the demo this last week.  All three showed up in the Top 25 which factors in the Live+3 viewing for the prior week, though.

Here is the full look at chart activity for genre shows for the week of March 23rd thru 29th:

Nielsen Twitter Rankings
Series Network Rank Prior Week Move -ment
The Walking Dead AMC 4 2 Down
Broadcast Networks Top 25 – Ratings 18-49
Series Network Rank Prior Week Move -ment Rating Prior Week
Once Upon A Time ABC 22 11 Down 1.7 1.9
Broadcast Networks Top 25 – Total Viewers
Series Network Rank Prior Week Move -ment Viewers (MM) Prior Week
Person of Interest CBS 12 n/a Up 9.2 n/a
Cable Networks Top 25 – Total Viewers
Series Network Rank Prior Week Move -ment Viewers (MM) Prior Week
The Walking Dead AMC 1 1 Same 13.8 13.8
The Talking Dead AMC 5 2 Down 7.5 6.0
The Walking Dead (R) AMC 20 n/a Up 3.4 n/a
General Sentiment – Broadcast Networks Top 25
Series Network Rank Prior Week Move -ment
Agents of SHIELD ABC 6 10 Up
Once Upon A Time ABC 8 7 Down
The Flash CW 10 9 Down
Supernatural CW 11 13 Up
iZombie CW 15 14 Down
Person of Ineterest CBS 23 n/a Up
Forever ABC 24 n/a Up
General Sentiment – Cable Channels Top 25
Series Network Rank Prior Week Move -ment
The Walking Dead AMC 2 1 Down
The Talking Dead AMC 4 9 Up
Prior Week Live+3:
Broadcast Networks Top 25 Live+3 – Ratings 18-49
Series Network Rank Prior Week Move -ment Rating Prior Week
The Last Man on Earth (9PM) FOX 14 20 Up 2.6 2.6
Once Upon A Time ABC 15 19 Up 2.6 2.6
Agents of SHIELD ABC 18 n/a Up 2.5 n/a
The Last Man on Earth (9:30) FOX 21 20 Down 2.4 2.6
Broadcast Networks Top 25 Live+3 – Total Viewers
Series Network Rank Prior Week Move -ment Viewers (MM) Prior Week
No Genre Entries
Cable Networks Top 25 Live+3 – Ratings 18-49
Series Network Rank Prior Week Move -ment Rating Prior Week
The Walking Dead AMC 1 1 Same 9.4 9.8
The Talking Dead AMC 2 2 Same 3.6 3.6
Cable Networks Top 25 Live+3 – Total Viewers
Series Network Rank Prior Week Move -ment Viewers (MM) Prior Week
The Walking Dead AMC 1 1 Same 18.2 19.0
The Talking Dead AMC 2 2 Same 7.0 7.0

Nielsen Twitter Ratings ranked based on the Unique Audience – The total number of distinct Twitter accounts accruing at least one impression of one or more different Tweets ascribed to a TV episode.  More info at this link.

General Sentiment tracks activity across the social networks for shows airing new episodes in Prime Time (start times between 8:00 PM and 10:55 PM EST Monday – Saturday and 7:00 PM and 10:55 PM EST on Sunday).  This data collected on seven (7) major broadcast networks and 43 cable television networks.  More info at this link.

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