'Sharknado' Trends on Twitter, But Not So Much on TV

Sharknado-mania swept social media Thursday night, but outside of the Twitterverse it looks like most people chose not to take the sharkbait.

Recently released Nielsen ratings show that only about 1.4 million people watched SyFy’s shlock masterpiece, which “realistically” (cough, cough) features man-eating sharks attacking unsuspecting Los Angeles residents after getting blown to shore by an epic storm.

According to USA Today, the Nielsen figure is downright average for a movie premiere on this channel, which has found a niche trotting out awesomely bad horror flicks. (Case in point: the 2011 film Mega Python vs. Gatoroid starring ’80s queens Tiffany and Deborah Gibson.)

Twitter lit up Thursday night during the broadcast, attracting comments from celebs as varied as Patton Oswalt and Mia Farrow, who jokingly Tweeted a photo of long-ago ex-husband Frank Sinatra at the beach after writing “So very #sharknado yawn”

Yet apparently all that attention, plus epic performances from stars Tara Reid and Ian Ziering – who can be seen ruggedly chain-sawing himself out of a shark’s belly – weren’t enough to hoist the show to the top of the TV food chain.

Even so, SyFy is hoping it can capitalize on the social media buzz. The cable channel will re-air the movie this Thursday at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

That’s Sharktastic news for anyone who missed this cheesy epic the first time around.