TOWIE stars (l-r) Sam Faiers, Amy Childs, Lauren Goodger and Lydia Rose Bright

The Only Way Is Essex is one of the most popular TV shows to tweet about, a study released today shows.

The series four opener in January of the smash-hit scripted reality programme, which features Redbridge locations including Chigwell and Gants Hill, prompted 159,603 messages through Twitter.

TOWIE was among the most tweeted about shows in the last year according to a TeleScope 2012 study, conducted for TV Licensing and using the Tellybug website as its source.

The Wimbledon Men’s Final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic drew 163,218 tweets, while the Eurovision Song Contest (167,874), and The X Factor final performances (294,767) and results show (346,216) also proved very popular.

The survey calls the habit of watching TV while commenting on it online or through messaging “chatterboxing” and says 26 per cent of all adults in south-east England have done this.

The figure rises to 43 per cent for those aged under 35.

One in four under-35s in the region try to watch a programme live, rather than on catch up, because they enjoy taking part in related social media chatter or are worried they will see spoilers on social networks.

The typical TV viewer in the South-East watches 27 hours of TV, including two-and-a-half hours of catch-up TV, per week and then three further hours watching programmes on laptops, smartphones and tablets.

The research was conducted online through an ICM poll, with a sample size in the South-East of 325 adults, and through BARB viewing figures.