The second annual Year End Stats Report from social media intelligence platform Trendrr indicates that 2012 saw a major surge in social interaction involving TV programs, with significantly increased chatter across Twitter, Facebook and various social apps. Growing interest in social TV chatter was also evidenced by the recent Nielsen announcement to create the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating.

Trendrr – which tracked data on Twitter, Facebook public pages, and apps such as GetGlue and Viggle – “measured more than 800 million social interactions around TV programs on their day of air; taking into consideration all the chatter surrounding programs when off air, that number would reach into the billions, the social TV analytics company said,” reports Variety.

While August was the most active social month, largely due to NBC’s 17 days of Summer Olympics coverage, the remaining months saw at least double the number of social interactions experienced during the same months in 2011.

Overall, there was an impressive 800 percent growth in social TV chatter on Twitter this past year, while growth more than doubled on Facebook and other social apps.

NBC led the charge, followed by ABC, FOX, CBS, ESPN and MTV. Programs with the most social activity included “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “The X Factor,” “The Voice,” “WWE Raw” and “Pretty Little Liars.”

“Sports accounts for a third of the market, underlining the real-time nature of social TV,” notes the article. “It’s also not surprising that reality contests are the second most popular genre.”