Carol Burnett to Appear in Final BETTER CALL SAUL Episodes
Six-time Emmy® Award-winner Carol Burnett will appear as a guest star in the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul, portraying a character named “Marion.”
In addition to Burnett, as previously announced, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, will appear reprising their BREAKING BAD roles of “Walter White” and “Jesse Pinkman,” respectively, as the show draws to its conclusion.
The series, produced by Sony Pictures Television, returns for its final six episodes beginning Monday, July 11 at 9:00 pm ET/PT on AMC and AMC+ with the series finale on August 15. The final episodes will conclude the complicated journey and transformation of its compromised hero, Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), into criminal lawyer Saul Goodman.
Said Burnett: “I’m thrilled to be a part of my favorite show.”
Better Call Saul stars Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Rhea Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, Michael Mando, Tony Dalton and Giancarlo Esposito and is executive produced by Peter Gould, Vince Gilligan, Mark Johnson, Melissa Bernstein, Thomas Schnauz, Gordon Smith, Alison Tatlock, Diane Mercer, and Michael Morris.
Burnett, an award-winning actress, and best-selling author is widely recognized by the public and her peers for her comedic and dramatic roles on television, film and Broadway, most notably “The Carol Burnett Show.” Named in 2007 by Time magazine as one of 100 Best Television Shows of All Time, “The Carol Burnett Show” ran for 11 years, averaged 30 million viewers per week and received 25 Emmy Awards, making it one of the most honored shows in television history.
Burnett has been seen on Broadway in Once Upon a Mattress, Fade Out – Fade In, Moon Over Buffalo, Putting It Together, and Love Letters. She is also known for playing Miss Hannigan in the original film adaption of Annie.
As a highly acclaimed actress, Burnett also has been honored with Emmys, People’s Choice Awards, the Horatio Alger Award, an Ace Award, the Peabody and a Grammy. A KENNEDY Center Honoree, the recipient of the KENNEDY Center Mark Twain Prize for Humor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, she was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The City of Los Angeles named the intersection of Highland Avenue and Selma Avenue directly adjacent to Hollywood High School, Burnett’s alma mater, Carol Burnett Square and CBS Studios dedicated “The Carol Burnett Artist Entrance” in her honor. Burnett was celebrated by her colleagues and fellow actors with the Life Achievement Award at the 2016 SAG Awards.
The series ended the first half of its current sixth and final season as the #1 acquisition driver in the history of the AMC+ streaming service and the #3 cable drama for the current broadcast season in key demos. The mid-season finale on May 23 delivered more than 2.2 million viewers in Nielsen live+3 ratings, as fans tuned in to see the conclusion of Kim (Seehorn) and Jimmy’s elaborate plot against Howard (Fabian) and experienced a pulse-racing surprise in the episode’s final moments.
Since its season premiere, BETTER CALL SAUL has generated more than 17 million engagements across social platforms, ranking as the #1 drama on broadcast and cable for conversation and organic search and the #1 cable drama in owned social engagement and content shares, according to data from ListenFirst.
Social Media’s Verdict on The Johnny Depp / Amber Heard Trial
Why on social media, the trial was always rigged against Amber Heard.
For about 8 weeks, the Johnny Depp / Amber Heard defamation lawsuit was the most popular reality show in America. In fact, the topic was mentioned in 16,049,016 Tweets between April 11 – June 1, 2022. As a social analytics company, we’re not qualified to comment if the verdict, Depp getting awarded $10.4 million in damages and Heard getting awarded $2 million in compensatory damages, was correct.
However, what we can illustrate through the data is that there was probably no way for Amber Heard to come out of the trial a winner from the perspective of the audience on social media, regardless of the verdict.
As recently as 2015, Johnny Depp was named by IMDB as the biggest movie star in the world (based on page views). On the day the trial started he had 24.6M total followers on social media. Amber Heard had only 1.12M followers. Based on that power differential in their popularity, the social media audience is coming from a place where they want to give Depp the benefit of the doubt and distrust the motives of the less famous person. For Heard, that was always going to be a near impossible hill to climb.
Depp Gains The Most New Followers, Win Or Lose
Johnny Depp Follower Growth, April 11 – June 1, 2022
Johnny Depp gained 9.56 million followers during his trial against Amber Heard, meaning between April 11 – June 1, 2022. He had only gained 284,582 followers during the previous time period of February 18 – April 10, 2022. On the day of the verdict he gained 1,998,788 new followers on Instagram alone.
Meanwhile during the trial, Amber Heard gained 91,511 followers on social media, compared to 1,281 during the previous time period.
Amber Heard Follower Growth, April 11 – June 1, 2022
That huge disparity in new followers could be read as Johnny Depp now has his reputation back and the social media audience is now supporting him more as a result, but that really isn’t the case.
On November 2 , 2020 Johnny Depp lost a defamation lawsuit in England against The Sun, around accusations he had abused Amber Heard. On that day, he got 20,605 new followers on social media with Amber Heard only getting 839 new followers on social media. That’s a pretty good indicator that regardless of what the outcome of the American trial ended up being, the social media audience was never going to embrace Amber Heard more than Johnny Depp.
Social Media Sentiment Around Amber Heard Didn’t Turn More Negative During The Trial
Amber Heard Twitter Sentiment
There’s been a lot of conversation online about what Amber Heard said on the stand and if it hurt her case, but proportionally on social media, negative sentiment around Heard actually peaked before the trial started. During the trial, Twitter sentiment around Amber Heard was 31% Negative and 13% Positive, with 18% of Tweets expressing the emotion of Anger. In the period immediately preceding the trial, February 18 – April 10, 2022, Twitter sentiment around Amber Heard was 32% Negative, 18% Positive, with 24% of the Tweets expressing Anger.
Johnny Depp Twitter Sentiment
In contrast, the conversation around Johnny Depp became more negative during the trial. Twitter sentiment around Johnny Depp was 27% Negative, 17% Positive, with 15% of Tweets expressing Anger between April 11 – June 1, 2022. In the corresponding period before the trial, Twitter sentiment around Johnny Depp was 14% Negative, 29% Positive, with only 9% of Tweets expressing the emotion of Anger.
The person whose social media reputation was likely improved the most by the trial, was Camille Vasquez, Johnny Depp’s lawyer. She was mentioned in 320,073 Tweets during the trial, with sentiment around those Tweets being 34% Positive, 16% Negative, and 23% of the Tweets expressing the emotion of Joy.
A Significant Amount Of The Social Conversation Around Amber Heard Was Bullying
Sorry #JasonMomoa. As much as I want to support you, I cannot support #AmberTurd. I will not be seeing Aquaman 2 – the first superhero movie I've skipped since the 90s. I need #JusticeForJohhnyDepp Good luck Mr.Depp!
Misogyny and cyberbullying was a huge issue in the Tweets discussing Amber Heard during the trial. Between April 11 – June 1, 2022 there were 614,431 Tweets using the hashtag #Amberturd, which partially was a reference to an accusation from the trial. Additionally, 26,694 Tweets referred to Amber Heard as either being a gold digger, a euphemism for a female dog, or as being a British euphemism for female genitalia.
Social Data Indicates Heard Not Depp Was Most Hurt By The Accusations
Johnny Depp’s lawsuit was built on the assertion that Amber Heard’s accusations against him were leading to the perception he was an abuser and this label hurt his career. Based on the social media data at least, there’s a much stronger case the opposite was true. Between 2016 and June 1, 2022 there were 847,179 Tweets using the hashtag #AmberheardIsAnAbuser compared to only 15,074 Tweets using the hashtag #JohnnyDeppIsAnAbuser. In no year was there more Tweets around Depp hashtag than the Heard one. That includes 2020, the year Depp lost a defamation lawsuit in England against The Sun, regarding accusations he had abused Amber Heard.
#JusticeForJohnnyDepp Engagement Is Being Driven By Single Issue Social Accounts
“i didn’t deserve that. nor did my children. (..) i pride myself on honesty. i pride myself on truth. truth is the only thing i’m interested in.” – johnny depp about amber heard. #justiceforjohnnydepppic.twitter.com/Weqed3rISx
There were 1,046,570 unique Tweets using the hashtag #JusticeForJohnnyDepp between April 11 – June 1, 2022. Of the top 10 of those Tweets that generated the most engagement 6 of those Tweets were from handles that were explicitly Johnny Depp fan accounts, another account referenced Johnny Depp in their profile description, 2 of the Tweets were from a lawyer who calls himself the DUI Guy and said he was covering the trial as a reporter, with the last most engaged Tweet coming from a user who was complimenting the judge on the case.
All of those Twitter accounts were created between January 2010 – October 2021; so none of those accounts were created during the trial. In fact, one of those Johnny Depp fan Twitter handles, emphatically stated in their account description that “I AM NOT A BOT”.
— kelly♡☆Johnnydeppisinnocent (@purejohnnydepp) May 28, 2022
In comparison to another movement about getting justice for a celebrity, there were 974,321 unique Tweets using the hashtag #FreeBritney between June 1 – November 30, 2021 (the period that hashtag was most popular). Of the 10 Tweets that got the most engagement during that time using the #freebritney hashtag, only 2 were posted by explicit Britney Spears fan accounts. In other words, popular Tweets using the #FreeBritney hashtag were less likely to come from accounts specifically devoted to the celebrity than was the case with accounts using the #JusticeForJohnnyDepp hashtag.
Milani Cosmetics Was The Big Brand Winner Around The Trial
In this trial, Johnny Depp was alleging he was defamed in an op-ed by Heard in The Washington Post. Ironically, that op-ed technically didn’t mention him by name. Hence, it’s only fitting the brand that saw the biggest boost on social media from the trial wasn’t mentioned during the trial.
People on the internet became convinced that when Amber Heard and her lawyers said she had used a Correcting Kit to hide bruises on her face, she was referring to a Milani Cosmetics Kit. In response, Milani Cosmetics made a TikTok video pointing out that their Correcting Kit didn’t launch until after Heard and Depp broke up. As a result, that video got 1,219,400 engagements on TikTok and Milani Cosmetics got 204,919 new followers on social media, an increase of 168% compared to the period before the trial.
Conclusion
From a social media perspective, at no point did more people believe Amber Heard than Johnny Depp, going back years. A 2013 English study of 111,891 domestic violence allegations found only 6 instances of false allegations.
In cases where there is not a clear legal winner and loser in a public trial, even one as visceral as abuse, the prevailing social media winner will always be the more popular party. In fact, this case has actually made Johnny Depp a more marketable figure from a celebrity standpoint according to social media engagement.
Given how vitriolic the response was on social media to Amber Heard making such an accusation against Depp, it seems even more onerous to make an abuse allegation against an uber popular celebrity. This should make us question whether we should be creating spectacles of our legal system at work.
What The Onion Headline That Keeps Going Viral Means For Gun Control
ListenFirst’s thoughts are with the people of Uvalde, Texas and everyone who was affected by the tragic mass shooting that occurred there. It is difficult to objectively analyze data around senseless violent events, but there are some insights we would like to share around the online social data which may be key indicators of the nation’s tolerance for this type of violence.
Around these senseless mass shootings, one way people on social media process the event is by sharing familiar headlines from various online news feeds. We will take a brief look at a reoccurring trending headline post from The Onion and see if the increased engagement around the tradition speaks to an increased public desire for gun control reform.
The Onion keeps republishing the headline “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” after mass shootings. The Onion shared posts using this headline 25 times since 2014 getting 957,041 total engagements on social media. As the article satirizes America’s unwillingness to change public policy to address a recurring problem, the more mass shootings, the more relevant the headline becomes to people. For example, The Onion’s most engaged version of that post was a May 16, 2022 Tweet that got 162,041 engagement and referred to a racist gunman killing 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store. Second most engaging was a May 25, 2022 Tweet, getting 145,458 engagements and sharing the headline in the context of the mass school shooting at Uvalde, Texas.
In comparison, The Onion first used the “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” headline on social media in their The Onion Review — Week Of May 30, 2014 video on YouTube getting just 636 engagements.
There can be a high correlation on social media, between school shootings occurring and gun control being discussed. For example on May 25, 2022 , the day after the Uvalde Texas school mass shooting, there were 591,058 Tweets mentioning a School Shooting and 610,625 Tweets mentioning Gun Control. On February 15, 2018, the day after the Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in Parkland, Florida there were 755,796 Tweets mentioning a School Shooting and 349,461 Tweets mentioning Gun Control. On December 14, 2012, the day of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting there were 472,732 Tweets mentioning a School Shooting and 287,628 Tweets mentioning Gun Control.
2022 Tweets represent the time period of January through May, 2022.
Not even halfway through 2022, there have already been more Tweets mentioning a school shooting this year than in any year since 2018. The Twitter conversation around both School Shooting and around Gun Control peaked in 2018, around the Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting most specifically.
Conclusion
It does not appear the increased engagement around The Onion’s “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” represents a larger audience interest in legislative reform around gun control. While there does appear to be a significant correlation between school shootings and gun control being discussed on social media, there was the most social conversation around both topics in 2018. That’s despite Uvalde, Texas being the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012.
Based on the social data at least, what happened in Uvalde, Texas is not going to be the tipping point for change, leading unfortunately to even more opportunities for The Onion to share the exact same headline in the future. If anything, the social media reaction to Uvalde indicates a new level of tolerance for violence in America.
ListenFirst Announces Support For Google Data Studio
Google Data Studio Connector
Social media analytics data from ListenFirst, including proprietary metrics can now be accessed directly from the Google Data Studio dashboard.
NEW YORK – March 24, 2022 – ListenFirst, the premier enterprise social analytics solution, today announced the launch of Business Intelligence (BI) Connector for Google Data Studio (GDS), providing their customers with an interface to connect directly to the ListenFirst API and access data on-demand within their Google Data Studio dashboard. This new feature introduces codeless integration and enables ListenFirst customers to create a multitude of data visualizations by manipulating and layering different social media insights within Google Data Studio’s chart/control types and customizations. These visualizations help marketers gain a deeper understanding of their return on investment per project enabling them to make informed decisions about future investments.
Available as a Partner Connector within the Google Data Studio Connectors page, ListenFirst’s BI Connector for Google Data Studio creates a quicker, more seamless way to get bulk selection of data without needing frontend access. Reporting cycles are readily available in GDS by utilizing dynamic date ranges to automatically refresh the latest insights in the desired date range and parameters.
“For ListenFirst customers looking to use data for visual storytelling, we couldn’t be more excited about what the BI Connector for Google Data Studio unlocks,” explains Jonathan Farb, Chief Product Officer. “Not only will users be able to conduct cross data source analysis, ad hoc / on-demand reporting, advanced charting, and data visualization, but Google Data Studio is completely free, meaning everyone with ListenFirst API access can take advantage of it.”
Through the BI Connector for Google Data Studio, social analytics insights from ListenFirst can also be published side by side with critical business data points from other sources in GDS, turning complex, data driven intelligence into easy to understand visualizations.
How The Ukraine War Is Impacting Social Media
On behalf of everyone at ListenFirst, our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine, and we hope the horrific and unnecessary conflict ends as soon as possible, with Ukrainians safe and the independence of the country intact.
While everything else involving the conflict is secondary to that, we did want to give a better picture of the social media conversation around the war in general, and how brands are discussing it.
The World Stands With Ukraine
There have been 61,881,105 Tweets mentioning Ukraine between February 24 – March 2, 2022. Additionally, there were 3,792,398 Tweets mentioning either the hashtag #StandWithUkraine or #IStandWithUkraine in the same time period. In comparison, there were only 61,827 Tweets mentioning Ukraine between February 24 – March 2 in 2021.
So the world is definitely focused on the conflict in Ukraine, but the volume of discussion on social media does appear to be decreasing over time. For example, there were 13,247,074 Tweets on February 24 mentioning Ukraine with that down to 5,440,689 Tweets mentioning Ukraine on March 2, 2022.
Unsurprisingly, Vladimir Putin is not a figure that’s very popular on social media right now. Overall, there have been 31,531,497 Tweets mentioning Putin between February 24 – March 2, 2022, with 44% of those Tweets being Negative, 9% Positive, and 31% of the Tweets expressing the emotion of Anger.
A good deal of the positive sentiment around Vladimir Putin can probably be attributed to disinformation campaigns. For example, there were 194,172 Tweets using the hashtag #IStandWithPutin or #StandWithPutin between February 24 – March 2, 2022 (39% of those Tweets were coming from either India or Nigeria). Additionally, there have been 67,503 Tweets in the same time period, discussing Bots in the context of Russia or Putin.
Brands Are Sharing Slightly Less Posts On Social Media Since Ukraine Was Invaded
The following chart shows the number of posts shared February 19-23, 2022 vs February 24-28, 2022.
Vertial
# of Posts shared On February 19-23
# of Posts Shared On February 24-28
% of Change
Beverage Brands
1,799
1,329
-26.13%
CPG Food Brands
2,185
1,690
-22.65%
S&P 500 Brands
4,137
3,217
-22.24%
Beauty Brands
8,108
7,328
-9.62%
Top Advertisers
9,261
8,439
-8.88%
Major & Independent Films
2,053
1,916
-6.67%
Episodic TV Shows
21,868
21,206
-3.03%
Fashion Brands
12,214
12,227
0.11%
Depending on the vertical, brands have been moderately more hesitant to post on social media since Russia invaded Ukraine. Comparing February 24-28, 2022 to February 19-23, 2022, 464 Top Advertisers brands tracked by ListenFirst shared 8.88% fewer posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. In the same time period, 978 brands in the Beverage industry shared 26.13% fewer posts, with CPG Food brands sharing 22.65% fewer posts.
For entertainment brands, the war has had a smaller impact on the frequency of social media posts. Of 7,584 Major + Independent films ListenFirst was tracking, their amount of posts decreased by 6.67% and 7,377 Episodic TV brands decreased the amount of posts on social by 3.03%.
Meanwhile, 1,190 brands in the Beauty industry shared 9.62% fewer posts while 2,500 Fashion brands actually shared 0.11% more posts in the same time period.
If Brands Are Posting About Ukraine Also Varies By Vertical
Between February 24-28, 2022, CPG Food brands only shared 6 social media posts mentioning Ukraine, and the brands in the Beverage industry only mentioned Ukraine in 3 posts. Additionally, Majors + Independents Films only shared 8 posts mentioning Ukraine.
Meanwhile, S&P 500 brands posted 100 posts about Ukraine, Fashion brands posted 85 times about Ukraine, and Beauty brands shared 45 posts on social media about Ukraine.
Brand Posts AboutUkraine Have Overwhelmingly Expressed Solidarity
The most popular brand post we found discussing the war in Ukraine between February 24-28, 2022 was by The Simpsons, with the family holding up Ukrainian flags, which is also the same color scheme as Marge’s head. That post got 410,678 engagements on Instagram and another 317,768 engagements on Twitter. Additionally, the “Prayer for Ukraine” performed by Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York cold open from Saturday Night Live received 164,104 engagements on Instagram and 148,161 engagements on Twitter.
Many brands talked about their personal ties to Ukraine. For example, Anastasia Beverly Hills’ Stand With Ukraine post on Instagram, which got 21,774 engagements, talked about how their founder grew up in a communist regime and understands the frightening implications of the invasion. Meanwhile, 1 Granary explained in an Instagram post that got 5,775 engagements that the brand was founded by a Ukrainian woman whose parents, siblings, nieces, and friends are right now fighting in Kyiv.
— The Walt Disney Company (@WaltDisneyCo) March 1, 2022
Often brands have been posting about how they’re changing their business practices or otherwise taking actions in support of the Ukrainian people. For example, the Walt Disney Company announced in a Tweet that they are pausing the release of theatrical films in Russia. Etsy announced on Facebook that they are canceling the current balances owed to Etsy by all sellers in Ukraine.
Other brands focused on addressing the food crisis that the war is creating. Goya shared on Facebook how they’re distributing hundreds of thousands of pounds of food to the people of Ukraine, while Tory Sport asked people to join them in supporting the World Central Kitchen, which is in Poland feeding hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees.
Cryptocurrency Is Not Being Discussed More Because Of The War, But Disinformation Is A Significant Issue
Overall, the war is not increasing the volume of conversation around cryptocurrency. For example, there have been 133,455 posts in the CryptoCurrency subreddit between February 24 – March 2, 2022, which was a 27.31% decrease from the volume of posts in the subreddit from February 17-23, 2022. However, that doesn’t mean crypto isn’t being discussed within the context of the war and with a lot of disinformation.
On Reddit there is a lot of articles from sources of questionable reliability being used to promote Bitcoin as a wartime solution. For example, the top Reddit post mentioning Bitcoin between February 24 – March 2, 2022 received a post score of 11,688 (upvotes – downvotes) and talked about how Russia will seize 60 trillion rubles from their own citizens if they go broke from sanctions, but Bitcoin can not be seized. Another top performing Bitcoin related Reddit Post got a post score of 3,887 and linked to an article where an anonymous hacker was offering Russian soldiers over $50K worth of Bitcoin for each tank surrendered.
Additionally at least one brand is being accused of being opportunistic around crypto and the war. In a post that got 3,045 upvotes, it was pointed out that while FTX is giving $25 of ‘free’ crypto to Ukrainians on their platform, the minimum FTX withdrawal limit is $100, so it would cost Ukrainians $75 to withdraw that money.
On Twitter there were 197,650 Tweets that mentioned both cryptocurrency and either Russia and Putin, and 166,508 Tweets mentioning both Bitcoin and either Russia or Putin specifically. Much of the conversation was speculating about if Russia would use Bitcoin to evade sanctions or focused on defending Bitcoin, like the fate of the cryptocurrency as opposed to human lives are what’s at stake.
If you hate #Bitcoin because Putin might use it, you should also hate the internet, GPS, cars, airplanes, and oxygen.
For example, a Bitcoin Magazine Tweet that Russia might start using Bitcoin to get around sanctions got 14,637 engagements. Meanwhile, a Tweet saying “If you hate #Bitcoin because Putin might use it, you should also hate the internet, GPS, cars, airplanes, and oxygen.” got 13,618 engagements. A Tweet by finance and business influencer Robert Kiyosaki claiming that “Bitcoin” defies Putin got 10,802 engagements.
Conclusion
For as long as the conflict is ongoing, ListenFirst will continue to monitor the situation and how brands are responding to it on social media. For now, our thoughts and wishes remain with the people of Ukraine.
2022 Social Media Marketing Trends
Social media is no longer an ancillary marketing channel for brands to explore. Brands that want to stay relevant to today’s consumer must constantly work to optimize their social media strategy.
This infographic shares how marketing and analyst professionals are approaching 2022 and the challenges and opportunities they plan to encounter.
