True Blood V’s Twilight: the Battle Goes on…

Charlaine Harris Books

If there’s one thing that “Twilight” and “True Blood” fans can both agree upon, it’s that vampires don’t suck — well, they do literally suck, but… ah, you get the point.

No matter which one you’re a fan of, both bloodthirsty franchises have strong support from their viewers. In a lot of cases, those viewers are active in the social media circuits like Twitter and Facebook. And while neither “Twilight” nor “True Blood” tends to edge the other out too badly in terms of online mentions, something very odd occurred to the contrary just last week.

OneRiot has compiled an interesting chart that details the amount of mentions that “Twilight” and “True Blood” each receive in the social media circuit — and while they’re usually neck and neck, “True Blood” soared past “Twilight” on June 15, 2009, dwarfing the likes of Edward and Bella by eight times the normal amount of mentions.

Like a vampire rising from the dead for the first time, the numbers for “True Blood” spiked on the evening of June 14, the same night that the Southern vampire drama premiered its second season on HBO. The premiere, which yielded almost four million viewers, remained a hot topic throughout the remainder of the next day.

What does this mean? For starters, it means that Edward and Bella fell victim to Bill and Sookie — for one night, at least.

But my real hunch? Check those numbers out again when “New Moon” comes out later this year. I got a sneaking suspicion that even the sleaziest of Bon Tempe’s residents won’t be on vampire fandom’s mind when the cameras focus on the Cullen family again.

Which dynasty are you a bigger fan of?

Charlaine Harris

• June 12, 2009 -- SOOKIE STACKHOUSE – ALL TOGETHER DEAD
• June 12, 2009 -- SOOKIE STACKHOUSE – DEFINITELY DEAD
• June 12, 2009 -- DEAD AS A DOORNAIL
• June 12, 2009 -- DEAD TO THE WORLD
• June 12, 2009 -- CLUB DEAD
• June 12, 2009 -- LIVING DEAD IN DALLAS
• June 12, 2009 -- DEAD UNTIL DARK
• June 12, 2009 -- Interview With Deborah Ann Woll | Newborn Vamp in TRUE BLOOD Season 2