Last August, Syfy's “Sharknado” premiered to a, um, sharknado of Twitter attention, but almost no live audience.
That appears not to have been a problem for Wednesday's (July 30) premiere of “Sharknado 2: The Second One.”
Syfy boasts that “Sharknado 2” drew 3.9 million viewers, including 1.6 million in the key 18-49 demographic. The original “Sharknado” drew under 1.4 million viewers total, so that's not unimpressive.
In addition to rising 183 percent in total viewers from the premiere airing of “Sharknado,” “Sharknado 2” was up 190 percent among adults 18-49 and 185 percent among adults 25-54.
But the cable network was less interested in trumpeting the tangible ratings for the Ian Ziering/Tara Reid sequel and more interested in puffing up some social media statistics that — let's be perfectly honest here — are simultaneously imprecise and entirely unmonitizable.
So let's celebrate some of those meaningless faux-statistics.
Apparently “Sharknado 2” delivered 1 billion estimated impressions for “Sharknado” Twitter conversations. What does that mean? I have no clue.
I reached out to Syfy to get some methodology on the claim. The explanation: The 1 billion figure comes from Sysomos and reflects the total follower count for people tweeting about “Sharknado” for the entire day around the world. If you're curious, Twitter only claims 271 million monthly active users.
Syfy boasts that “Sharknado 2” at one point monopolized Twitter's Top 10 trending topics and “there were more mentions of Sharknado on Twitter than #MileyCyrus on the day of MTV”s 2013 VMAs, #kimye on Kim and Kanye”s wedding day and #transformers4, #thelegomovie, #godzillamovie and #22jumpstreet on each movie”s worldwide premiere day.”
In addition, “Sharknado 2” is now being called “the most social movie on TV ever” and Syfy says it was “more social” than any episode of “Game of Thrones,” “The Bachelorette” or “Survivor.”
All that for a TV movie that had a smaller overall audience on Wednesday than ABC's repeat of “The Middle.”
Looking a little deeper, “Sharknado 2” was cable's top show for the night in the 18-49 demo, but among women 18-49, it lost to “Teen Mom II.” Among adults 18-34, “Sharknado 2” finished behind “Teen Mom II,” multiple repeat airings of “American Dad” and “Duck Dynasty.”
Syfy has set encore airings of “Sharknado 2” for Saturday, August 2 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, August 3 at 9 p.m.
And, of course, “Sharknado 3” was already greenlit.