Conan Vs Leno, Twitter style

As NBC’s late night drama unfolds, it’s interesting to watch celebrities like Patton Oswald (team Conan) and Jerry Seinfeld (team Leno) take sides. Both Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno have been vocal about their opinions, but mostly via TV and the news. As far as I can tell, neither comedian has a personal Twitter account, although both have official Twitter accounts (most likely not maintained by themselves) for their TV shows.

Twitter Sentiment is an application that tracks sentiment behind various keywords on Twitter. It is a useful tool, and although it’s not as effective as manually pouring through Tweets, it can give a general sense of how Twitter users feel about a particular subject.

The below graph shows the ratio of positive to negative Tweets where Conan is mentioned

Tweets about Conan seem to be a little more negative than positive, but it’s close. Compare that with this chart, which shows the ratio for Tweets about Leno

According to this chart, there are 3 times as many negative Tweets about Leno as there are positive. But as is the case with many of these tools, the real story might not be so simple. It’s entirely possible that there are simply more Conan fans on Twitter.