'Pretty Little Liars' season premiere ratings solid

Pretty Little Liars scored itself some not-so-little ratings last night.

The show’s season 4 premiere was the show’s best summer debut ever, with 2.97 million viewers. (Read our recap of the episode here.) That number is up slightly from the 2.93 who tuned in for last season’s opener.

The episode also grew 31 percent in the 18-34 demo from the previous year and ranked as cable’s No. 1 scripted drama of the night.

The cherry on top of those solid numbers? The episode was the “most tweeted” season premiere for any TV show, generating nearly 1.3 million tweets, according to the network. (Yes, it beat The Walking Dead.) Such accomplishments, while noteworthy, stand to mean a little more to advertisers later this year when Nielsen and Twitter launch their previously announced “Nielsen Twitter TV Rating,” which will essentially enhance the social TV analytics already available today and have the Nielsen-approved stamp.

Liars‘ social media domination is anything but new, however. In fact, the show’s complete domination of social media was just months ago the subject of an EW cover story.

‘Pretty Little Liars’ season four preview: Keegan Allen on Toby’s ‘losing it’ and the flashback that ‘explains the whole show’