Nik Wallenda and The Discovery Channel had people talking this weekend. His Chicago tightrope stunt was broadcast across multi-platforms on Sunday night, battling football and “The Walking Dead.”
Amobee Brand Intelligence shared some social numbers from Sunday evening to Monday evening. Ammiel Kamon, SVP, Product Management at Amobee tells us that:
As for social, the activity didn’t show as much of a boost for Discovery Channel itself, but plenty for Wallenda and the associated hashtag. “Discovery Channel” accounted for only 4.5% of the social activity surrounding the stunt:
- 87.3K Tweets around #SkyscraperLive
- 35.7K Tweets around Nik Wallenda
- 5.75K Tweets around Discovery Channel
The stunt drew 6.5% higher consumption (how many times “Discovery Channel” was seen across social platforms) than “Shark Week,” the number one franchise for the channel. While consumption numbers are high, they aren’t anywhere near what “The Walking Dead” drew in this week, according to the New York Times. Bill Carter writes:
The two walks between skyscrapers in Chicago averaged 5.8 million (with vision) and 6.7 million viewers (while blindfolded). The biggest interest in walkers remains with AMC, where its hit “The Walking Dead” pulled in 14.5 million viewers to top Sunday night on cable television. That may not be enough to beat “Sunday Night Football” on NBC in total viewers, but the 9.6 million who were in the favored advertising bracket of viewers between the ages of 18 and 49 will almost surely be the night’s best number.
This season of “The Walking Dead” is hard to beat, though. And the numbers show that Wallenda and the dangerous stunt were the main draw. If someone over at Discovery or another isn’t already planning “Stunt Week” they should be embarrassed.