For TV series, broadcasting still helps drive social engagement – and vice versa

There are plenty of expected “dog bites man” stories atop of the TV content engagement leaderboard. Squid Game, the Korean phenomenon that completed its third and final season on Netflix in 2025, had more social media engagement (142 billion) than the rest of the top 20 TV programs put together (roughly 111 billion). And there are a number of other less than surprising names on that list from among the buzzier shows of 2025:

• No. 2 – Stranger Things (Netflix)
• No. 3 - Love Island (Peacock)
• No. 6 – The Summer I Turned Pretty (Amazon Prime)
• No. 9 – White Lotus (HBO Max)
• No. 10 – It: Welcome to Derry (HBO Max)
• No. 13 – The Last of Us (HBO Max)
• No. 16 – Yellowstone (Paramount +)
• No. 18 – XO, Kitty (Netflix)

What I find more interesting is the enduring presence of broadcast and cable-originated programming on the list. How many of us have heard from peers or from our own kids: “I never watch anything on broadcast TV anymore.” Well, it turns out that even in the flooded world of streaming content, there are still a hell of a lot of people engaging with content from the most traditional of TV outlets.

I have to start with number four – The Rookie. No, not the 2002 Disney film starring Dennis Quaid. No, not the 1970s ABC police show starring Michael Ontkean. I’m talking about ABC’s current primetime program starring Nathan Fillion, now in its eighth season. That show attracted 9.7 billion social media engagements in 2025. Who knew?

And look at these other shows from the top 20 list, most of which are also streamed, but all of which originated on broadcast or cable TV platforms:

• No. 5 – Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
• No. 7 – Young Sheldon (CBS)
• No. 8 – Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
• No. 11 – America’s Got Talent (NBC)
• No. 12 – RuPaul’s Drag Race (MTV)
• No. 14 – American Ninja Warrior (NBC; originally G4)
• No. 15 – 90 Day Fiancé (TLC)
• No. 17 – Abbott Elementary (ABC)
• No. 18 – Peppa Pig (Nickelodeon)
• No. 19 – Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta (MTV)

As CEO Midha explained to me, part of the success of these programs may well be their longevity. Rather than people simply jumping on the latest, most heavily marketed new streaming show, the series that have staying power - and almost everything on the broadcasting and cable list has been around for many years – can clearly drive significant social media engagement and help sustain viewership and marketing interest for years.

For shows that originated in the linear TV universe but have ended their runs, the social media train doesn’t have to stop as streaming creates an environment for a long social media afterlife. The report’s list of top “concluded” programs in social media is led by Breaking Bad, which ended its AMC run in 2013 but thanks to streaming still drew 6.2 billion social media engagements in 2025. The other members of this list, including Modern Family, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and The Office, are all long “gone” but benefit from long-tailed libraries that few current streaming hits will get the chance to produce.

In movies, KPop Demon Hunters lapped the field

If you know, you know. KPop Demon Hunters was a phenomenon by any measure you want to pick. It was Netflix’s most-watched film of all time, with over 569 million views by February of this year. Its soundtrack set a record as the first to ever chart four songs on Billboard’s top 20 simultaneously – pretty amazing when you consider some minor soundtrack hits such as Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Its song Golden won the Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy for Best Original Song in a film.

Demon Hunters’ social media presence was no less dominating, with over 112 billion engagements in 2025, ten times greater than the second place A Minecraft Movie (at 12 billion) and more than 19 of the top 20 combined. No preexisting movie or game franchise, just stunning original content. What a concept.

Different strokes (of content) for different folks (social media users)

The social media world is not some undifferentiated mass of posts, likes and shares. When it comes to TV and movie content, different genres drive quite different levels of engagement on alternative social media platforms.

As Diesel Labs’ findings indicate, YouTube is the leading social media platform for engagements that involve video views, which is no surprise. YouTube also leads in all social media engagements for film, but TikTok is actually the leader when it comes to social media engagements for TV content.

Consumers interact with their preferred content genres to greater or lesser extents on different social media apps. According to Diesel Labs, nearly 82% of social media engagements on action and adventure content took place on YouTube in 2025, and for kids and family the story was similar with YouTube capturing over 75% of such engagement. In fact, out of 11 different content genres measured, action and adventure programming alone (combining film and TV) accounted for over 55% of all YouTube engagement with film and TV content.

With respect to most of the other content genres, YouTube was also the leading social media engagement app for most of other content genres: sports programming, comedy and sitcoms, drama, science fiction, and lifestyle programming (think HGTV, Food Network, etc.). Instagram proved to be the leading social media engagement platform for documentary films and series and for specials programming (although just barely beating out TikTok for the latter. And reality programming was the one genre which found more social media engagement on TikTok.

There’s far more to mine here, with an overriding message – unless you think social media usage is heading for a reversal any time soon, it’s best to make sure you’re listening to the signals emanating from it, even for the most traditional media content.