With many TV series wrapping up their seasons with explosive finales this week, viewers have been turning to the social web to post reactions and discuss the latest plot advancements. Leading the pack in social buzz is How I Met Your Mother, whose season finale not only welcomed a new baby but also gave more details as to who Barney (played by Neil Patrick Harris) will marry.
Other strong social buzz performers during the first half of the week included The Big Bang Theory, The Voice, Bones, Game of Thrones, WWE Raw and American Idol.
Mashable's mRank leaderboards track the most buzzed-about TV shows across the social web. mRank's technology analyzes certain terms -- in this case TV show names or words associated with a certain title -- and creates a leaderboard based on the volume of conversation around that show on Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Mashable has leaderboards for various events and topics -- from movies to music -- and more will pop up for events, such as the Olympics, in the future.
Although reality TV show The Voice dropped from first last week to the sixth most-discussed earlier this week, its finale was held a week prior to many other finales. Fans of the show took to social networks to react to the crowning of Jermaine Paul, Alicia Keys' former back-up singer and the mentee of country star Blake Shelton, as "the Voice."
The top ten also featured Mad Men (despite its lack of a season finale), newcomer series The New Girl and perennial favorite Dancing with the Stars. Meanwhile, Saturday Night Live -- which is the 14th most-discussed show online -- received a lot of buzz earlier in the week when former cast member Will Ferrell re-joined the team to host the season wrap-up. In addition, a clip of celebrities from the show's digital shorts returned on Saturday night to celebrate the series’ 100th sketch, with the help of Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Natalie Portman and Michael Bolton. The video went viral and initiated a lot of online chatter.
Toward the end of the week, American Idol shot up to the top of the mRank list, pushing How I Met Your Mother down to the ninth spot. If early buzz for American Idol's finale is any indication, we suspect it will be back on top yet again next week.
Other strong performers toward the end of the week include Bones, Criminal Minds, The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family and Game of Thrones.
mRank 5/16/2012
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