Oprah Winfrey was interviewing Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Harpo Productions | Joe Pugliese | Getty Images
About 17.1 million people signed up for Oprah Winfrey’s Sunday night interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on CBS, according to the network, citing Nielsen data.
The two-hour session, called “Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special,” received a rating of 2.6 among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. These numbers are likely to increase as adjusted data from home viewing and delayed viewing comes in the next day or so. Nielsen traditionally publishes the official issues for the events of late Sunday, next Tuesday.
This is the largest primetime audience for any entertainment special in the current TV 2020-2021 season and the second most broadcast event live on CBS outside the National Football League and Super Bowl Sunday.
These preliminary figures represent a solid return for CBS, which would have paid Oprah’s Harpo Productions a licensing fee of between $ 7 million and $ 9 million to broadcast the special. Meghan and Harry were not paid to attend the interview.
For comparison, more people watched the interview than did the September Emmy Awards and last month’s Golden Globes combined. The interview is proof that, even in a period of streaming, there are still events that can lead considerable viewers to traditional network television.
The interview with Oprah deepened the reasons why the couple decided to leave England and move away from their royal duties.
Meghan and Harry addressed the lack of support Meghan received when she went to the palace for mental health issues, the refusal of security protection for the Archie couple’s child and the royal’s worries about Archie’s skin tone once she was born. .
The parallels between Meghan and Harry’s mother, Diana, were clear just before the couple made their own comparisons during the interview. Harry noticed that the royal family had been financially disrupted since the beginning of 2020 and that he and Meghan managed to survive only because of the legacy left to them by their mother.
He added that the transactions he and Meghan concluded with Netflix and Spotify were made, in part, to meet their ongoing security needs.
The couple also revealed that they got married before the official royal wedding in a small intimate ceremony and announced that their second child is a girl.