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"Live" TV & Social Media

I was planning on writing a nice little post this evening while watching the Grammy Awards- until I discovered that CBS isn't letting those of us on the west coast in on the live broadcast.

How does that happen in this day and age- the Social Media Era?

I realize this is an insignificant issue in the overall scheme of the universe, but regardless, it's an issue that baffles me. I just don't understand why events like this, with instant results and reactions, wouldn't be shown live across the entire country.  


Consider this: last week's Super Bowl experienced over 10,000 tweets per second (TPS) during the final three minutes of play. The peak was 12,233 TPS, a record for sporting events. That number is up drastically from even just one short year ago, where fans peaked at just over 4,000 tweets per second. In 2009? A mere 27 TPS.

And just yesterday, Whitney Houston's tragic death (R.I.P., Whitney) was tweeted 27 minutes before mainstream media "broke" the news. An estimated 2.5 million tweets and retweets about her passing occurred within the first hour.

We've all seen the power of social media. My question to CBS and the Grammys is this: why not take full advantage?

I suppose I could stay away from my Twitter the rest of the evening, but I probably won't. Instead of sharing my immediate reactions with everybody else, I'll read what other people have to say first and imagine it in my head. With my regular Sunday night TV lineup (The Walking Dead, Shameless, House of Lies and Californication, in case you were wondering), I probably won't even get through the entire Grammy show tonight. Which means I'll watch it tomorrow... if I end up watching it at all.