It turns out we might have gotten a little too excited this morning with our promises that everybody you know was watching the SyFy original movie Sharknado last night. While it's true that the movie appeared to be a genuine sensation on Twitter, and did become a worldwide trending topic, it turned out to be one of those phenomenons limited to a small group of very passionate people-- like Firefly or planking. According to The Atlantic, Sharknado was watched by just over 1 million people, with a 0.4 rating in the important 18-49 demographic. That's a half a million fewer people than usually watch SyFy original films, so Sharknado got even less attention than 2010's Dinocroc vs. Supergator, or the classic Mongolian Death Worm.
The Atlantic even prepared a handy graph so you can compare just how unimportant tweets can be for actual viewers of a show. Remember Game of Thrones's infamous "Red Wedding" episode? Here's how its ratings and tweets stack up against Sharknado's:
Though, to be fair-- the Red Wedding was a huge, spoiler-heavy event on Game of Thrones that responsible Twitter users shouldn't have been tweeting about while it was happening. Sharknado watchers seemed to have no problem spoiling the plot-- in fact, that was part of the fun. But the point is taken-- Sharknado was a huge deal on Twitter, and barely a blip anywhere else.
Still, that won't stop SyFy from acting like Sharknado was a hit anyway. According to Variety the network is already planning a sequel, and they'll re-air the original Sharknado next Thursday at 7 p.m., as a lead-in to the new, Frankie Muniz-led film Blast Vegas. You know you're curious. Here's the trailer for that one below.
For more on SyFy and The Asylum, the production house that keeps the network in business with a constant stream of ridiculous monster movies, check out this profile at Pacific Standard magazine, in which they actually go behind the scenes of these cheap-cheap-cheap productions. That's why SyFy barely even seems to care that Sharknado was a tempest in a teapot. It got attention for their insane brand of sci-fi filmmaking, and will probably inspire more than a few people to turn into something else ridiculous (it's no coincidence that they're currently airing a marathon of their original movies-- as I type this, Mega Piranha is about to air, followed by Mega Python vs. Gatoroid). Sharknado may not have been the phenomenon that Damon Lindelof's tweets made it seem… but in the low stakes world of SyFy original films, it's big enough to count.
