Here are the hot TV shows on Twitter, will it help ratings?

Twitter has said many times that increased buzz leads to more people watching

Does Twitter actually drive higher television ratings? The company certainly wants you to think it does, as does Nielsen. I have my doubts about that, since how engaged can you be with a show if you're tweeting while its on? 

Now we will have a chance to really see if Twitter engagement actually equals ratings as the company has released new data on which television shows, both new and returning, have been generating the most buzz before they start next week.

In all there were 21 million tweets sent out about upcoming TV shows, a 34% increase year-to-year. Maybe this is finally the season where the network turn it around and actually grow their audience? I wouldn't count on it.

Obviously shows that have already aired would generate the majority of the buzz. In fact, 90 percent of the conversation was dedicated to these shows.

The show with the most Tweets was Grey’s Anatomy, a.k.a. that show you had no idea was still on the air, with 2.2 million. That was followed close behind by Supernatural, with 2 million, and The Walking Dead, with 1.9 million Tweets.

Rounding out the top five were The Vampire Diaries, with 1.6 million Tweets, and Once Upon a Time, with 1.1 million. I don't watch any of these shows (though I have been meaning to check out the Walking Dead). Am I missing out on something by not watching these?

There were three shows that, while they didn't make that list, saw huge increases in the number of Tweets from last year. The biggest, by far, was The Flash, which saw a 1637% increase, followed by Jane the Virgin, with a 748% increase, and How to Get Away with Murder with a 377% increase.

This seems like a good time to mention that Justin Baldoni, one of the actors on Jane the Virgin, launchedhis own startup last month, called Shout the Good, which is dedicated to positivity on social media. If that's not a reason to root for the show, then I don't know what is.

Twitter also looked at the "new shows" that have already gained followings, even though at least two of them are barely what I would count as anything new.

To illustrate, the first one if the new iteration of American Horror Story, called Hotel. It saw 1.1M Tweets, but it has a built in fan base from the previous seasons of that show. It completely dominated too, with a 61% share of the Tweets. 

Next was the new Late Show, now with Steven Colbert, which also barely counts as "new" but close enough I guess. It had 314,000 Colbert has been on a little over a week and he's already created some really compelling television. Did you see that interview with Joe Biden? Fantastic stuff.

That was followed by Scream Queens, another Ryan Murphy show, which had 247,000 Tweets.

Fourth was something that definitely, no matter how you slice it, counts as a new show. Heroes Reborn, the completely unnecessary reboot of the terrible show from eight years ago, had 107,000 Tweets. Why? Because things are terrible.

In fifth place was an actual new show, Supergirl, one of the few new shows I'm actually interested in, which had 49,000 Tweets. 

It's in Twitter's best interest to convince television networks, and advertisers, that more Tweets equals greater ratings. There's an easy way to see: I kind of want to come back at the end of this television season to see if these correlated with any kind of rating success. 

My guess: Supergirl gets cancelled after one season. 

(Image source: blog.sokrati.com)