The Night That Twitter Changed Television

Twitter and its users took control of NBC last night in the final minutes of the network’s hit reality competition series “The Voice,” ushering in a new era of television viewer connectivity and quite likely changing the way other broadcast networks will look at their signature competition hits.

It was a big elimination night on NBC’s hottest show, but instead of relying on viewer votes from the night before to determine which two contestants would get the boot, as it always does, the show instead identified the bottom three “artists,” then turned their fates over to viewers with Twitter accounts -- a sizable group that suddenly had all the power over everyone else. “We’re doing something that’s never been done!” “Voice” host Carson Daly declared at the top of the show. “After we announce all of your saved artists we will reveal the three singers with the lowest number of votes that are in danger of going home. Then you’ll have one last chance to save an artist using Twitter!” It should come as no surprise that according to the Twitter TV Ratings from Nielsen, “The Voice” last night was far and away the most tweeted-about program on television. Two and a half million distinct accounts viewed at least one of the 595,000 “Voice”-related tweets generated during the hour.