TVloop Blog

Super Bowl XLIII is only a few weeks away, and The Office is slated to immediately follow the broadcast of the game on NBC.  That could mean double or even triple the standard number of viewers for a show that generally brings in 8-9 million users per episode according to TV By The Numbers.  If that were to hold true, the post-Super Bowl episode of The Office could bring in up to 25 million viewers simply by riding the coattails of the game.  That’s not too far-fetched based on the data presented along with the estimate.  In the past 13 years, only one post-Super Bowl show fell below the 20 million viewer mark and that was Alias in 2003.  Conversely, eight shows have gone above the 25 million mark which would be a huge win for The Office which hasn’t been able to gain mass adoption despite critical acclaim an a rabid fan base.

Graph courtesy of TV By The Numbers

The Office currently has ~470K members in the TVLoop community, and was the fourth fastest growing community in December with almost 15K new users behind Twilight, The L Word, and Friends.  But that means that of all shows currently broadcasting on the big four networks, The Office is the fastest growing with Family Guy, House, and Gossip Girl coming in at a distant second, third, and fourth respectively.

According to the latest StatShot post from NewTeeVee, Gossip Girl is continuing it’s rapid ascension up the social media ladder by taking over the #1 spot on Trendrr’s list of most twittered TV shows.  Heroes had previously held that title for a few months until the most recent results.  The trendy show, which I blogged about recently regarding guilty pleasure shows, continues to do well within the TVLoop community as it is firmly implanted in the top 10 growth apps on a weekly and monthly basis.  Gossip Girl, which currently has a total community of ~534K TVLoop members, saw a total increase of almost 3% in December to take fifth among active TV shows.

Gossip Girl is one show that doesn’t seem to be running out of steam in social media or within the blogosphere.  Between questions from the CW about real viewership numbers and Nicole Richie guest starring, that doesn’t appear to end any time soon.

We have a lot of aggregate user data available to us here at TVWeek and we’re putting that data to good use.  In early December I published a post about how the shows that are being embraced within the TVLoop community are very different than those included in the weekly Nielsen Top 20.  In fact, only two of the top 10 TVLoop shows, Grey’s Anatomy and House, are also included on the Nielsen list.  We’ll continue to monitor that as the second half of the TV season gets underway, but so far nothing has changed.  We were rewarded for making this data available to the entertainment industry with prime placement in a recent TVWeek article by Daisy Whitney.  In it she states:

Online tastes appear to differ greatly from on-air likes. The online TV fan community TVLoop.com recently measured the top-rated TV shows on the Web during the fall, based on user growth and audience engagement online. The shows were “The Office,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Family Guy,” “Gossip Girl,” “One Tree Hill” and “House.”

Only “Grey’s Anatomy” and “House” were ranked in Nielsen’s top 20 prime-time shows for the week ending Dec. 7, TVLoop.com said. By contrast, many of the top online shows also rank high when it comes to online buzz, as measured by Nielsen Buzz Metrics.

We’re happy to be included in the post and look forward to seeing our data used in similar ways throughout 2009.  Anyone out there have any specific data needs or case studies they would like to see?  We aim to please and I would be happy to look into any nuggets of info that the community thinks would make for an interesting read.

With the Season 5 premiere of Lost only 17 days away, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at some of the community stats of one of the most popular TVLoop shows with almost 540,000 total fans.  While it’s early so far, Lost is the 4th fastest growing community in 2009 behind the seemingly unstoppable movie Twilight, ever-popular fan-favorite Friends, and The L Word which continues to build momentum leading up to its own season premiere on January 18.

Here are a few of the key stats for Lost:

• 539,443 total fans - an increase of 20% since the Season 4 finale
• 6,078 images - an increase of 31%
• 23,742 trivia questions - an increase of 32%
• 436,311 quizzes taken - an increase of 26%
• 30,000 full episodes viewed via the partnership with ABC

The rate that new fans are becoming fans of Lost within the TVLoop community is also increasing indicating that fans are starting to gear up for the premiere.   Those that don’t want to wait for January 21 can get an early taste of what to expect by taking a look at some of the various trailers on The Live Feed.  And if you’re looking for something a little more, a great review of what to expect (without any spoilers) can be found on Jeff Jensen’s Popwatch blog.

2008 was a year of ups and downs for TV land. It started off down with a Writer’s Strike that started in 2007 and lasted into 2008. During that time Lost gained new fans, while other shows were introduced.TV fans across the living rooms breathed a sigh of relief when the Writer’s Strike ended and new episodes were ushered in. Come November, TV fans had to share the airwaves with elections, debates, and satirical skits. As our favorite shows return from its winter hiatus in 2009, us at TVLoop will be waiting AND watching. In the meantime, it is that proverbial time of the year to look back and come up with “Bests“, “Worsts” and “Lists“. Here, at TVLoop it is no different…. so with out any further ado…

Best Gainers of 2008
1. Friends - Gained 337,209 fans.
2. Family Guy - Gained 373,772 fans.
3. Sex & The City - Gained 312,122 fans.
4. Lost - Gained 303,568 fans.
5. Scrubs - Gained 291,005 fans.

For a show that is off the air, Friends fans and Sex & the City fans continue to unite across the TVLoop community to re-live the moments.

Biggest Surprise of 2008
Twilight - We released this show for the TVLoop Community in August. Within 5 months it has grown to a fan base of about 230,000 fans. Who knew that an unrequited love between a human and a vampire would get so many fans crazed?

Most Loved Cancelled Show
Pushing Daisies - This is a TVLoop Team favorite. Stylistically and artistically done, the quirkiness of the characters and situations will make us be missing our favorite Pie Maker. However, we may see in the future Bryan Fuller’s talents applied to Heroes.

Best Guilty Pleasures
Who would be a good TV fan without some secret guilty pleasures? 2008 marked several of them:

The Hills - We know this is a guilty pleasure for many TVLoop fans because it has continually be on top of the Most Popular This Week List. It seems like watching well-to-do teenagers will never go out of fashion.

Gossip Girl - Don’t like watching a reality show with well-to-do teenagers? You can watch a scripted one full of love, hate and gossip. We know it’s a secret favorite as it continually hits our Most Popular List in season.

90210 - Good bye Brenda and Dylan, hello Kelly and the New Gang. When the CW brought back 90210, we were unsure how the fans would receive this one; however, the fans spoke by asking us to release a 90210  TVLoop community .

Despite the Writer’s Strike, we are more than grateful for 2008! We are especially grateful for all the TVLoop Fans who continue to visit us and use TVLoop to meet other fans, share their passion for their TV Shows, and play games. We look forward to a great 2009 in TV!!