Nickelodeon's Mega-Popular Original Animated Series "SpongeBob SquarePants" Named The USA's Most-Loved Television Series!

From USA Today:

In search of the USA's most-loved TV series

Here's how Spongebob floated to the top of the USA's top series in Web traffic and social media mentions.

12:22PM EDT October 25. 2012 - What's the most-loved series on television? And, frankly, how does one go about measuring that kind of passion?

Fortunately, with so many ways these days for folks to express their enthusiasm for specific shows, there is more evidence available than ever. So USA TODAY, in an attempt to measure viewers' dedication, pulled data from a wide range of those platforms in search of Television's Most-Loved Shows.

Looking at a year-long period — July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012 — we created a recipe for a stew of statistics:

-- We collected data on social media activity, website traffic and actual viewership: counts of Twitter mentions and followers, Get Glue check-ins, Facebook fans, fan-fiction activity, and Google Plus pluses and inclusion in circles. We added total social activity measured by social-media metrics firm Trendrr.

-- With measurements from Web-traffic trackers at Hitwise Experian, we sifted in visits to television-show websites.

-- And we stirred in prime-time, premiere-episode average viewership numbers from television's official scorekeeper, Nielsen Co.

Each measure accounted for a percentage of a show's final score.

After all that, what bubbled up as the series that commands the most passion from its fans? Tops in USA TODAY's TV-passion index: Nickelodeon's Spongebob Squarepants — which, perhaps not surprisingly, dominated the charts from both Hitwise and Trendrr — followed by Fox's fictional songfest, Glee, and the network's popular singing competition, American Idol.

A look at a just a couple of the number sets:

Total social activity (in millions of mentions, from Trendrr):

1 SpongeBob Squarepants 15,133,047

2 American Idol 9,040,514

3 Jersey Shore 7,899,373

4 Glee 6,685,882

5 Pretty Little Liars 6,618,041

6 Bad Girls Club 6,439,736

7 WWE Raw 5,957,343

8 The Voice 5,524,227

9 The X Factor 5,249,078

10 106 and Park 5,080,676

Website traffic (in pct. of total visits to major network and cable sites, from Hitwise Experian):

1 Spongebob (Nick) 12.02%

2 Adventure Time (Cartoon [Network]) 5.03%

3 South Park (Comedy Central) 2.85%

4 American Idol (Fox) 2.53%

5 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien (Cartoon) 2.39%

6 Phineas and Ferb (Disney) 2.03%

(tie) Dancing With the Stars (ABC) 2.03%

8 Tosh.0 (Comedy Central) 1.90%

9 Jersey Shore (MTV) 1.52%

10 The Daily Show (Comedy Central) 1.30%

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

USA TODAY merged viewership data with Web-traffic rankings to determine who was No. 1

'Spongebob' was tops in social activity and website traffic

Fox's 'American Idol' and 'Glee' were Nos. 2 and 3