The twelfth Doctor is here, and the show’s Season 8 premiere has definitely stirred up plenty of activity. Not only did the show set a ratings record for BBC America on Saturday, it set off plenty of buzz across the social networks. Doctor Who placed at Number 1 on the General Sentiment charts (which measure social network activity for the cable shows) and the Doctor also showed up in the Nielsen Twitter Ratings at the Number 8 slot. BBC America’s other Saturday series Intruders did not make it onto either of those charts, but that one still had a solid debut for its network. True Blood made an appearance in the Nielsen Twitter Ratings for the first time in a while as that show’s series finale drove it to the Number 6 slot (it was at the Number 3 spot on General Sentiment). Interestingly, TNT’s The Last Ship was absent again on the social network charts even though it had its season finale on Sunday as well. That show has continued to deliver solid ratings and total viewer numbers for a basic cable series, but has not generated much buzz on the social nets. MTV’s Teen Wolf actually appeared twice on the General Sentiment charts, once for its regularly scheduled episode on Monday Aug 18th and once again for its special Sunday pre-VMA airing. Starz’s Outlander fell out of the General Sentiment charts for its third episode, even though it total viewers numbers continue to rise. On the broadcast network charts, Extant still managed to stay in the Top 25 based on the ratings in the 18-49 demo, despite being on the very edge last week. And Under the Dome remained in the Top 10 for another week, though it will likely fall out next week based on its most recent ratings dip.
Here is the full look at chart activity for genre shows for the week of August 18th thru 24th:
| Nielsen Twitter Ratings | ||||||
| Series | Network | Rank | Prior Week | Move -ment | ||
| True Blood | HBO | 6 | n/a | Up | ||
| Teen Wolf | MTV | 7 | 4 | Down | ||
| Doctor Who | BBCA | 8 | n/a | Up | ||
| Cable Networks Top 25 – Total Viewers | ||||||
| Series | Network | Rank | Prior Week | Move -ment | Viewers (MM) | Prior Week |
| The Last Ship | TNT | 5 | 7 | Up | 4.4 | 4.1 |
| True Blood | HBO | 14 | 8 | Down | 4.0 | 3.6 |
| Broadcast Networks Top 25 – Ratings 18-49 | ||||||
| Series | Network | Rank | Prior Week | Move -ment | Viewers (MM) | Prior Week |
| Under the Dome | CBS | 10 | 10 | Same | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Extant | CBS | 24 | 25 | Up | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Broadcast Networks Top 25 – Total Viewers | ||||||
| Series | Network | Rank | Prior Week | Move -ment | Viewers (MM) | Prior Week |
| Under the Dome | CBS | 6 | 7 | Up | 7.3 | 6.9 |
| Extant | CBS | 17 | 17 | Same | 5.6 | 5.7 |
| Person of Interest (R) | CBS | 22 | n/a | Up | 5.1 | n/a |
| General Sentiment – Cable Channels Top 25 | ||||||
| Series | Network | Rank | Prior Week | Move -ment | ||
| Doctor Who | BBCA | 1 | n/a | Up | ||
| True Blood | HBO | 3 | 5 | Up | ||
| Teen Wolf (Mon 8/18) | MTV | 5 | 3 | Down | ||
| Teen Wolf (Sun 8/24) | MTV | 6 | 3 | Down | ||
| The Leftovers | HBO | 11 | 10 | Down | ||
| Defiance | Syfy | 13 | 21 | Up | ||
| The Strain | FX | 21 | 14 | Down | ||
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.
