While there are many platforms that measure the social reach of television content, ListenFirst Media’s Digital Audience Rating (DAR) for TV is one of the most comprehensive. They comb Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr, Wikipedia and YouTube for social engagements and use that to calculate performance.
The company recently published a report on the highest performing shows for Q2 and they aren’t all what you expect them to be. Jason Klein, co-CEO/co-founder of ListenFirst Media says that it’s important to look at platforms not just as an outlet for content:
Most marketers think of digital channels, specifically YouTube, as a place for viewers to sample content, but really it’s a place where programs can live on beyond linear moments. The programs popping to the top in the second quarter suggest that content posted after a show airs generates long-tail engagement and virality, especially in the late night and competitive reality genres.
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Here’s a breakdown of best performing content by platform, according to ListenFirst:
YouTube: The Late Late Show With James Corden’s popular segment, “Carpool Karaoke” features the host riding around in the car with various celebrities. In May, the segment featuring Justin Bieber, quickly became one the most popular segments to date. In addition to being the top video on YouTube for the quarter, it also became the top overall post across all channels analyzed.
Facebook: America’s Funniest Home Videos owned the top-performing Facebook post of the quarter, with this video montage of scaredy cats. The post was able to make it’s way to the top, even though it was only posted a week before the quarter ended on June 24, 2015.
Instagram: Though Sportscenter’s Instagram content garnered enough engagements for it to become the top program on the channel, Pretty Little Liars had the top performing post, with this photo of Lucy Hale.
Google+: Though it was shared much later in the quarter, The Simpsons created the highest amount of engagements on a post with this photo of Homer captioned “what’s a gym?”, which plays off the character’s reputation.
Tumblr: The Late Late Show With James Corden wasn’t the only late night show with a top-performing post on a channel this quarter. Conan was able to top all Tumblr posts with a gif of comedian Deon Cole commenting on the Rachel Dolezal controversy that took place during the quarter.
Engagements around the Voice were mainly around special performances, like Wiz Khalifa and Sia. A post by the season’s winner generated a total of 400,000 social actions.
There were only 300 pieces of content published by Lip Sync Battle, but Spike found engagement over at YouTube, where it posts clips afterwards and fans go wild in the comment sections. 
Who’s watching Dreamworks Dragons? It doesn’t really matter, because Orange is the New Black blows most of them of out the water with a DAR of 36 million. A trailer for season three released that last spring garnered 34 million views in the quarter alone.
Fallon continues to engage fans both during and after his shows, when clips of him dancing or doing whatever he does make their way around the web.