Game of Thrones Ranks as One of Twitter’s Most Emotional Moments

There’s hundreds of year end lists coming out at the moment, ranking the Best of this and the Worst of that. Most of these are critic’s choices and based less on physical data and more on esteemed opinions. But this one, which floated passed us not too long ago, is a scientific study, based on user data over the television season. Telegraph Hill, an “expert TV research agency,” conducted analysis of Twitter conversations during prime time to determine a list of The Most Talked About” TV moments of 2014. According to their press release:

Over a billion tweets were analysed by Telegraph Hill to identify the most emotionally resonant TV moments. Positive feelings were the most likely to be shared with “love” the most tweeted emotional word in the study, followed by “good” and “happy”.  The next most popular tag was “hate”, which was only shared at a ratio of 1:6 to happy.  The evidence shows that good news is more amenable to sharing and retweeting than negativity. The exceptions to this are around “hot” emotions such as anger. There were a very high number of angry tags found around The Great British Bake Off, following ‘Bin-gate” where the contestant binned his Baked Alaska. The study was able to identify how Twitter can enable an online form of “emotional contagion”, similar to that seen in crowds at sporting events, and some tweets were retweeted hundreds of times.

Being a UK based company, these figures are based on UK twitter users, and not the US. But it’s still an interesting way to consider TV ratings. We know Neilsen has taken to including hashtag usage as part of it’s ratings system. This unique, public-focused take is simply taking that data a step further. Telegraph Hill determined that, though many of the reactions came from reality TV fare (which might explain why the genre is so popular) “but the top two emotional moments involve ‘traditional’, high quality British drama and cinematic-quality TV.” That “cinematic quality TV” turns out to means Game of Thrones. Below, the scene that got so many people tweeting.

According to the study, Oberyn’s death in Game of Thrones was “shocking and grotesque and viewers turned to twitter to express their horror and sadness with over 404,000 tweets about the death.” This reflects what we’ve seen in the comments and the polls for Season 4 over this past fall. Even though Oberyn was a brand new character, and someone who viewers had to get to know, by the time episode 8, “The Viper and The Mountain,” rolled around, he had fixed himself in viewers hearts and imaginations. In an episode filled with shocking moments and major character deaths, Oberyn’s fight with The Mountain was Season 4’s Red Wedding equivalent, and in effect partly upstaged the next episode “The Watchers on The Wall” that aired in the penultimate slot.

Agree? Disagree? The real question to me–if this study had been expanded to include US tweeters, would the results have been the same?

The full list of their Top Ten TV Moments below.

1)   Sherlock returns in “The Empty Hearse”. Two years after his apparent suicide, Sherlock Homes returns to save London from a terrorist threat. Sherlock’s resurrection was the most discussed TV moment in 2014 with over 639,000 tweets about his return. Viewers expressed excitement and surprise about his return.

2)   Oberyn’s death in Game of Thrones was shocking and grotesque and viewers turned to twitter to express their horror and sadness with over 404,000 tweets about the death.

3)   Cheryl Cole’s return to the X Factor panel three years after being fired. 372,000 twitter conversations expressed happiness that the nation’s favourite Geordie was back on our screens and judging pop hopefuls once more. Cheryl’s return received the highest number of  “happy” tweets (conversely she also received the highest number of “hate” tweets but at a ratio of 6:1 in favour of happy)

4)   Gemma Collins from TOWIE’s anxiety when faced with parachuting into the jungle in I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here was the fourth most emotionally resonant TV moment with 336,000 tweets recorded mostly expressing a malicious pleasure in her misfortune.

5)   The opening of the 13th series of Celebrity Big Brother with contestants entering the house handcuffed together. 326,000 tweets occurred reporting amusement and entertainment value about the chaining together of the unlikely couples such as Jim Davidson and Linda Nolan and Dappy and Liz Jones.

6)   Collabro’s first audition in Britain’s Got Talent surprised and enthralled viewers with musical theatre; the boy band’s rendition of Stars from Les Miserables led to 215,000 twitter conversations.

7)   ‘Bin-gate’ in Great British Bake Off, where Ian Watters dumped his Baked Alaska in the bin in front of shocked presenters Mel and Sue. Over 180,000 tweets expressed shock and anger over ‘Bin-gate’.

8)   Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor Who – a defining moment for all fans of the well-loved science fiction TV series now over half a century old. Over 178,000 tweets commented on the appearance of Peter Capaldi in all his glory as the twelfth Doctor Who in the programme’s history.

9)   Alex forgetting he cheated on Binky in Made in Chelsea drove 168,000 tweets with viewers expressing mainly anger

10) The triple firing in The Apprentice, where Lord Sugar got rid of no-hopers Canadian born Steven Ugoalah, hypnotherapist Sarah Dales and business graduate Ella Jade Bitton shocked audiences with 114,000 tweets to express surprise and shock over the multiple firings.

• Published on 12/30/2014 at 9:00 AM CDT
• Last updated on 12/30/2014 at 9:00 AM CDT