It was a busy night on Twitter, as people watched the second presidential debate. Our research shows that people were highly engaged on social media during the debate and had a lot of emotions about what they were seeing. Our partners at CANVS analyzed more than 13 million tweets about the election for emotional reactions (ERs). Of those, 3.2 million tweets showed an emotion, and the top one, surprisingly was “Love.”
Here’s the overall range of the top emotions on Twitter about the debate:
16% Love
12% Hate
11% Crazy
8% Dislike
7% Enjoy
4% Supportive
3% Angry
The love started early, about 10 minutes in, and it was for Anderson Cooper who kept asking Donald Trump about the infamous Access Hollywood tape. Trump was evasive, but Cooper pressed the matter. The Twitter reaction was strong:
Good job, @andersoncooper! Way to hold him to the fire! #debate
— Misha (@MishaRN) October 10, 2016
Way to go @andersoncooper! Great question out of the gate. #Get him #debate
— Sarah Books (@Sarahshrty) October 10, 2016
Interestingly, “Hate” emotional reactions hit a peak right in that same time frame, as Cooper pressed the question of sexual assault. I can’t print the words many people used, but you can guess. Here are some of the cleaner ones:
Anderson Cooper is really irritating. #Debate
— Steve Engheben (@SteveTech74) October 10, 2016
Here we go with @andersoncooper badgering DT. #Terrible. No one cares about #lockerroom banter. ALL guys do it.
— Texas 🇺🇸 USA (@WeaverJim) October 10, 2016
People thought things were getting seriously crazy about 70-80 minutes in to the debate:
This debate is just insane.
— Joe DeAngelo (@jdeangeloedit) October 10, 2016
Finally, we have to give a shoutout to the breakout star of the night, Ken Bone. Like it or not, the guy’s name launched a thousand memes. CANVS found that, among the tweets mentioning Ken, the top reaction was “Love.”
The best part of #KennethBone is that @andersoncooper referred to him simply as “Ken Bone” like they are buds.
— Andy (@randywatt) October 10, 2016
The third and final presidential debate is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, October 19, at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. It will be held at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas.