How I became a 48-hour accidental viral sensation thanks to Drake

B-A-N-A-N-A-S! That is the best way to describe the 48-hour madness I experienced after hitting the simple word “tweet.”

Right after the Raptors won Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals I tweeted this video we captured during a live interview with Drake which has now received over 6.7 million views.

To put this into perspective normally when I tweet a video I get one view, and it’s usually from my husband!

Hour 1:

During our 11 p.m. newscast I was live as soon as the show started just minutes after the Raptors won and didn’t have much time to think about what I was going to say or do. We go live and I start talking and see from the corner of my eye a bunch of camera lights and just say what I think is happening “Oh there is a scrum going on with Drake!”

It was like time stopped and I was running in slow motion carrying the Olympic torch which is now the CityNews microphone. In my mind it felt as if I leapt like I was in the long jump competition over two reporters to get our microphone in.

Just look at the wide-eyed look I have, it’s too funny to me now:

After it airs my camera operator Ken, who thankfully is one of the best in the business and was able to follow the wild moments going on in my head and film it as if it was a movie, sent the video to my phone from his camera and I hit “tweet.”

Hour 1.5:

I’m terrible at social media and ended up accidentally deleting it shortly after I put it up. I then tweet it again.

Then I closed the social media app on my phone and didn’t plan on looking at it again. I usually only go on every few days.

Hour 2:

I get home around midnight and my friend Dan texts me saying “What a win! Also your tweet is going crazy right now!” I didn’t know what he was talking about so I look and it has over 300,000 views.

Hour 3-6:

I’m sleeping and my phone is on silent so I am not aware of what I will wake up to.

Hour 7:

When I wake up and check my phone I see I have over 30 missed calls and dozens upon dozens of text messaged. My immediate thought is “Ricky Martin announced he is coming back to Toronto!” Why else would people find it so important to call or text me so early?

Turns out in just a few hours my video has accumulated over 1.5 million views and is being picked up by every major sports network, not only in North America, but also in Europe.

Hour 8:

Over a million more views! I’m not even checking, I’m just getting texts, emails and phone calls telling me about it. I’m starting to get sent screenshots from friends showing me where they have seen my tweet.

Hour 9:

I do almost 20 interviews in an hour around the world for news stations that wanted to know what was going on with Drake in the moment and how Toronto is reacting to the Raptors win.

Hour 10:

I check Facebook and Instagram quickly and suddenly have hundreds of new friend requests and dozens of private messages asking for anything from a date to Raptors tickets.

Hour 11-18:

I am apparently Drake’s new best friend.

Hour 19:

Another million views. Now I have people I haven’t talked to since elementary school reaching out saying they saw me on something with Drake and asking me for Raptors tickets.

Hour 20-28:

More interviews, more views and apparently still Drake’s new best friend.

Hour 29-48:

I am at the ScotiaBank Arena where I have been going to every Raptors home game for more than four years to report on the team. This time it was different. People would stop me and ask me: “Are you the girl who tweeted about Drake?” or “Hey, I saw your video on (enter TV show here). You’re famous!”

The best part of this all is my friends and family know just how bad I am at using social media and more importantly I don’t particularly like Drake’s music. So the fact that my post about Drake on social media went viral is a hilarious moment.