Systems and methods for flexibly using trending topics as parameters for recommending media assets that are related to a viewed media asset

A system comprising:

• a user input interface configured to receive input signals at user equipment;
• and
• control circuitry configured to:
• determine that a media asset has been consumed by a user;
• identify a first attribute and a second attribute corresponding to the consumed media asset, wherein at least one of the first attribute or the second attribute is identified at least in part by processing one or more frames of the media asset;
• determine that the first attribute matches a trending topic by comparing the first attribute to a plurality of topics with which a threshold number of viewers have interacted within a period of time that is shorter than a threshold period of time;
• access a data structure associated with at least one social networking service to determine whether the trending topic is also trending on the at least one social networking service;
• and
• based on determining that the first attribute matches the trending topic and the trending topic is also trending on the at least one social networking service:
• increase a weighting of the first attribute by an amount corresponding to a set of viewers that have interacted with first attribute, wherein the increased weighting of the first attribute ranks the first attribute greater than the second attribute that does not match the trending topic;
• and
• generate for display a recommendation of a second media asset that includes both the first attribute and the second attribute, and wherein the first attribute is weighted greater than the second attribute.