'Breaking Bad' Finale Didn't Quite Break Twitter or Facebook

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By Brian Anthony Hernandez2013-09-30 19:41:40 UTC

Breaking Bad reached its climactic end on Sunday, as fans spilled their emotions about the series finale in droves on Facebook and Twitter. Not seeing a tweet or Facebook status update about AMC's Emmy-winning drama was practically impossible.

Nielsen reported that 10.3 million viewers tuned in to Sunday's "Felina" episode — 3.7 million more than the previous week's "Granite State" episode. That's Breaking Bad's highest viewership in series history, but in comparison, it fell short of besting fellow AMC show The Walking Dead, which saw 12.4 million viewers for its season 3 finale in March.

Despite record viewership, Breaking Bad didn't attract as much social buzz as one might have anticipated after witnessing the online hubbub.

On Twitter, the finale garnered 1.24 million tweets for the East Coast and West Coast airings as well as the three-hour periods before and after those respective broadcasts, according to data obtained by Mashable. ABC Family's teen drama Pretty Little Liars saw more social activity with more than 1.9 million tweets in the same time spans.

Breaking Bad cast members and writers helped bring the Twitter statistic above the 1 million mark, tweeting their emotional last messages before the finale aired and continuing throughout and after the episode.

On Facebook, the finale incited 5.5 million interactions (public posts and the comments and likes they receive) from 3 million people. Those figures bring the season 5 total to 28.5 million interactions from 14 million people, per data Facebook emailed to Mashable.

In comparison, 9 million people talked about MTV's Video Music Awards, generating 26 million Facebook interactions largely spawned from Miley Cyrus' raunchy performance. Meanwhile, the NFL season opener sparked 20 million interactions from 8 million people.

Although the popular show ended Sunday, it will live on through an AMC spinoff series about criminal lawyer Saul Goodman. The prequel is tentatively titled Better Call Saul.

At the Primetime Emmys, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan admitted to Mashable that the show may have met its demise after season two had it not been for streaming video on demand: "It's indeed a golden age of television [...] I think Netflix kept us on the air."