SCANDAL Pace (S2 News): GLADIATORS & ABC’s Scandal Rule Twitter Thursdays

February 9, 2013 — Since season 1 of ABC’s Scandal, cast members and fans known as GLADIATORS have participated with Live Tweet sessions each Thursday night during the East and West Coast airings of the hit show.  Now midway through the sophomore season, the GLADIATOR Tweet Parties have only gotten bigger!

The Hollywood Reporter’s Lesley Goldberg reports on the #AskScandal Tweetland phenomenon on Thursday nights and the 2,200 tweets per minute the Gladiators are sending!

How ABC’s ‘Scandal’ Gets 2,200 Tweets Per Minute
The stars of Shonda Rhimes’ drama, including Kerry Washington, help generate five trending topics as episodes air — and ratings are up this season.

ABC’s Scandal is experiencing a sophomore growth spurt — and Twitter might be the reason.

Shonda Rhimes’ drama, starring Kerry Washington as a D.C. political fixer, has taken over the social media platform every Thursday this season, with the Jan. 31 episode generating more than 2,200 tweets a minute and five worldwide trending topics. The entire cast has contributed to the effort, live-tweeting during episodes using the #AskScandal hashtag and generating such story-driven tags as #WhoShotFitz and #WhatTheHuck.

“Everybody is super-involved and willing to do whatever it takes to make this show work,” Rhimes tells THR. “People heard about the show from other people — Oprah Winfrey heard about it from Twitter — and that got other people watching. That really helped us.”

The strategy is working: Original episodes of Scandal are averaging a 3.1 rating this season, up 19 percent in the key adults 18-to-49 demographic, en route to overtaking CBS’ Elementary at 10 p.m. Thursdays. And the trajectory is upward: The Jan. 31 episode delivered its best retention of lead-in Grey’s Anatomy to date, holding 96 percent in the 18-to-49 metric as it threatens to surpass Rhimes’ longtime ratings champ.

ABC, meanwhile, has fully embraced the Twitter strategy, promoting the #AskScandal phenomenon into its on-air promos (below) for the drama. Click here to view the on-air promo video.

#Scandal‘s shocking 13th episode blew up Twitter, hitting 10,582 tweets per minute at the highest spike Thursday. #AskScandal #Gladiators

— Lesley Goldberg (@Snoodit) February 8, 2013

 

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