‘Supernatural’ Is the Most Popular TV Show Online

Ratings are not everything, even though they’re what keeps a show on the air. Fans are also extremely important in determining just how strong of a following a series has and, in this sense, there’s no better show than “Supernatural,” as a recent survey reveals.

University student Lethia Williams and David Lemmons set out to determine which of the shows now airing on television are the most popular online, and, most importantly, which has the biggest fanbase among Internet users.

As it turns out, neither of these has anything to do with official Nielsen ratings. Perhaps not surprisingly, the show with the biggest, most loyal and most active fanbase is “Supernatural,” the CW series now at season 7, TV Over Mind reports.

Other sci-fi shows follow suit: “Castle” lands at number 2, while “Smallville” is at number 3. “Community” and “Hawaii Five-0” are next, on the fourth and fifth position respectively.

The rest of the top 10 of shows popular online looks something like this: “Chuck,” “Bones,” “Leverage,” “The Vampire Diaries,” and “Fringe.”

Surprisingly enough, “Glee,” now among the highest rated shows on TV, only ranks 12th in terms of the size and loyalty of its online fanbase.

The survey included 3,562 respondents, all of whom answered questions about their favorite show and their online behavior related to said show.

The “Supernatural” target fan is around 31 years old and, contrary to what fans of other shows do, s/he actually interacts with other fans starting from the series, the aforementioned publication reports, citing Williams herself.

“Supernatural fans also are more active in the qualifiers for ‘fandom.’ They do not just watch the shows, they interact. More than 80% of Supernatural fans have started new social networking activities because of the show, compared to only 60% of the fans of other shows,” Williams says of the findings of the survey.

“75% of Supernatural fans have produced creative enterprise (fanfic, fanvids, fanart, etc) inspired by the show compared to only 58% of fans of other shows. Supernatural fans are also prolific,” she adds.

They are also very active online, voting and speaking out both on topics about the show and unrelated to it.

Based on the findings of the survey and some of the oddest choices that make the top, Williams concludes that shows with lower ratings tend to have bigger online support, because that’s when fans feel the need to get organized and do things together.

“Fans of shows with lower viewership would live in constant fear of their show being canceled, and would therefore be more passionate in an effort to keep their favorite show on the air,” Williams believes.