At first glance, it looks like Houston CBS affiliate KHOU momentarily forgot what network it represents when it posted a story about FOX network’s mega-hit “Empire” on both its facebook page and website.
Most likely, the Gannett-owned station followed the parent company’s lead instead of its affiliation, when it also posted the story from Gannett’s USA Today promoting the show’s record ratings during its two-hour season finale. The posting also included a nearly four-minute promo reel from the show.
We asked Gannett about whether local stations can choose what content they report and/or promote via social media. We’ll update when we hear back.
Here’s the story from the website:
Fox’s Empire won’t stop building.
Wednesday’s eventful two-hour season finale averaged a record 16.7 million viewers, according to updated Nielsens, up 12% from 14.9 million for last week’s one-hour episode. (The red-hot show drew 17.6 million for its final hour).
Among young adults, Empire climbed 16% from last week, and through 12 hours, now ranks as the top-rated network series among viewers ages 18 to 49, eclipsing CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, with only original episodes counted. Fox also crowed that Wednesday marked the top-rated night of entertainment programming among that crowd since American Idol’s January 2012 season premiere.
And the show the big, again, on social media: 4.2 million U.S. Facebook users generated 15.8 million likes, comments or shares, and fans posted 2.4 million tweets about the show.