Twitter posted some data about how British viewers tweet during popular TV shows (you'll have to sign up to download it, since it's meant for advertisers).
It's heavy on buzzwords and pretty long, but has a fascinating set of charts. Here's how people tweet during different types of shows:
During dramas — good ones, at least — people barely tweet at all. They tweet a ton before and after, but go silent for the hour:
For trashy reality shows, tweeting starts high and trails off (perhaps as viewers get hate-watching fatigue):
People tweet a lot during investigative shows (Panorama is like 20/20), but more interestingly they keep tweeting after it's over:
During movies, they tweet during iconic or notable scenes but not much else:
The X-Factor, a singing competition show, saw spikes for each performance:
And huge, perhaps obvious, spikes in the finale:
This one's the most interesting. Tweets actually drop off during ad breaks, when it seems like they might spike. But that's because fewer people are watching — they reach for the remotes to change the channel before they reach for their
