Social Wit List: February 2015

NEW YORK: Of all the new programs to debut in February, CBS's Stevie Wonder: Songs In the Key of Life—An All-Star Grammy Salute garnered the most buzz in social media, with some 125,000 tweets, according to The WIT.

Stevie Wonder: Songs In the Key of Life—An All-Star Grammy Salute, a tribute to the music legend, featured special performances by Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Pharrell Williams and Ed Sheeran. Social media was buzzing about the #StarFilled event and the #BeautifulPeople and #AmazingSongs it featured.

Number two on the list of most-buzzed-about new programs was AMC's Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul. The comedy drama, which focuses on the evolution of the popular Saul Goodman character before he became Walter White’s lawyer, had around 77,000 tweets, with social media expressing #Excitement about the show, its #BelovedCharacters but #TrickyNarrative. Many said it was #AsGoodAsExpected.

The Disney Channel TV movie Bad Hair Day was third. The one-off is about a high school tech whiz bound and determined to be crowned prom queen—but on the big day, everything that can go wrong does go wrong. There were around 46,000 tweets in social media for the broadcast, with a #MassiveFanbase engaging in #LiveChat about #DisneyPower.

In France, the broadcast of TF1: 40 ans d'émotions partagées—a special evening revisiting 40 years of shared emotions on TF1, with a look at the moments that marked the country, from the network's iconic shows to landmark stories in the news—drew some 45,000 tweets. There were many #LOLTweets in social media, with commenters experiencing #Emotion and #Nostalgia.

Coming in at number five, Levántate, which aired on Telecinco in Spain, also garnered some 45,000 tweets. Marking the first adaptation of the talent search format Stand Up for Your Country, the show sees parent/child duos with a talent for singing, already made popular by the Internet, compete to get a standing ovation from a live audience. While some in social media said it was #Emotional, others said it was #TooEmotional. Commenters were also buzzing that there are #TooManyKidsShows.

Fresh Off the Boat on ABC in the U.S. had around 33,000 social media comments. Based on restaurateur Eddie Huang’s memoir, the comedy series set in the ’90s is about a Chinese family that moves to Orlando. The social media buzz was about the show being #Hilarious, #Edgy and #NotOffensive, with some giving #KudostoPositiveDiscrimination.

There were some 31,000 tweets regarding the TF1 TV movie Tu es mon fils, adapted from the ITV miniseries A Mother's Son. The one-off tells the story of a mother who suspects her son of having killed a teenage girl at his junior high school. Buzz talk surrounding the telefilm was about it being #Disappointing, with a #PredictableEnd.

UKIP: The First 100 Days, which aired on Channel 4 in the U.K., drew around 30,000 social media tweets. The fictional documentary explores an imagined future in which the far-right UKIP wins the general election in May 2015, and its leader Nigel Farage is the country's Prime Minister. The #DividedAudience was commenting on Facebook and Twitter about the program being #Disturbing and #Biased, but also #QualityProgramming.

BBC Two's Meet the Ukippers, a doc that offers insight into the heartland of the UKIP party as cameras follow activists over the course of six months, also had around 30,000 tweets. Buzz talk on social media about the #Shocking program had comments about #RacistIdiots and #Sarcasm.

Ranking tenth on the list, CBS's Victoria's Secret Swim Special follows the brand's supermodels as they land in Puerto Rico to shoot their swimwear campaign. Around 28,000 social media comments were made about the #Steamy broadcast, and how its #BeautifulModels were giving some on social media #SwimsuitFever.

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