Top 10 Most Tweeted Live TV Events In 2014: Ellen’s Selfie Pushes Oscars To The Top Of The List

What do Ellen DeGeneres, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Lupita Nyong’o, Kevin Spacey and Jared Leto have in common?

They were all part of the star-studded cast that became the most retweeted tweet of 2014.

Ellen’s now famous Oscar selfie – tweeted during Hollywood’s biggest awards show – helped push the live television program to the top of the list for the most tweeted live television events – or specials – of the year. (Twitter excluded live sporting events from it’s list of “Most Tweeted Live Specials,” ranking the top ten sports events on Twitter separately.)

Not only was Ellen’s “Golden Tweet” the most retweeted tweet of 2014, it accounted for the most tweeted minute during a live telecast during 2014.

If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014

All the big award shows made it into Twitter’s top ten list of most tweeted live television specials, including the Grammies, MTV Video Music and Movie awards, the Golden Globes and the American Music Awards.

President Obama made his way into the list as well, with this year’s State of the Union address ranking No. 9.

Top 10 Most Tweeted Live TV Events

1. The Oscars
2. The 56th Annual Grammy Awards
3. 2014 MTV Video Music Awards
4. The 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards
5. 2014 American Music Awards
6. 2014 Billboard Music Awards
7. The BET Awards 2014
8. The MTV Movie Awards
9. State of the Union 2014
10. The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards

Here’s a quick snapshot of the top ten most tweeted live events along with the date, network, audience size and number of tweets generated by each of the television specials. Using data from Nielsen, Twitter ranked its top live television specials by the unique audience size for the telecast.

Twitter also ranked the top ten most tweeted television series of 2014, proving the only thing we love more than apocalyptic zombie shows is tweeting about them: Top 10 Tweeted TV Shows in 2014: “The Walking Dead” No. 1, but “The Voice” Sets Single-Episode Record.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.