CSI Series Finale Drives Little Social Buzz

While CSI has been one of the longest-running shows of the decade, its series finale drew almost no digital buzz. Amobee Brand Intelligence analyzed the engagements around the finale and found that just a few fans were called to action last night, which either means that CSI is more a of a VOD hit than anything else or that everyone was watching ABC, which premiered Quantico and Once Upon a Time last night.

• Once Upon A Time: 245,214 tweets
• Quantico: 66,744 tweets
• Fear the Walking Dead: 42,102 tweets
• CSI: 23,148 tweets
• Ray Donovan: 7,704 tweets
• The Simpsons: 5,859 tweets
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine: 4,473 tweets
• The Strain: 4,356 tweets
• Family Guy: 3,402 tweets
• The Last Man On Earth: 2,223 tweets

CSI Consumption in Context

•  There are a few factors that contribute to the low buzz for the series finale, even though it’s been a successful show. Genre shows like Once Upon a Time and Fear the Walking Dead generally perform better than procedurals on social media. There’s also a gradual decline in CSI’s overall popularity. They averaged 11 million viewers per episode in season 15, compared to 26 million viewers per episode in season 5.
• But audience sentiment around the CSI series finale was definitely more positive than negative. Of the 23,148 tweets around CSI between 8 p.m. – 12 a.m. ET on Sept. 27,  Twitter sentiment was 28 percent positive, 56 percent neutral, and 16 percent negative. Positive sentiment peaked at 11:07 p.m. ET with 198 positive tweets or two minutes after the episode finished, as fans reflected on two characters’ happy ending. Negative sentiment peaking with 99 negative Tweets at 11:11 p.m. ET, as it began to sink in for fans that there would be no more new episodes.
• Most interest spun around original cast members returning for the finale. Between Sept. 27-28, William Petersen, who hadn’t been a series regular since season 9 had the most CSI related digital content engagement; while Marg Helgenberger who hadn’t been a series lead since season 12, had 81 percent as much CSI related digital content engagement. Ted Danson, who’d been on the show between seasons 12-15 had 74 percent as much CSI related digital content engagement as Peterson between Sept. 27-28; with Jorja Fox who’d been with the show for every season other than seasons 9-10; having 54 percent as much CSI related digital content engagement as Peterson in the same time period.