About 29.2 million people woke up early on Saturday morning in the US to watch Prince Harry wed American TV actress Meghan Markle, according to Nielsen.
The numbers well surpassed the 22.8 million viewers that watched the last royal wedding, between Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011.
Watching it live took some commitment: The event took place took place between 7 and 8:15 am Eastern time; and 4 and 5:15 am on the West Coast, on a Saturday.
Nielsen’s total includes linear TV viewing on ABC and the Freeform simulcast; BBC America; CBS; CNN; CNNe; E!; Fox News Channel; HLN; MSNBC; NBC; PBS; Telemundo; TLC; and Univision.
Fox News said that it saw 2 million total viewers, compared to 1.92 million for CNN and 1.01 million for MSNBC. However, CNN captured the young adult audience ages 18 to 34 with 125,000 viewers; and in the key news demo of adults 25-54, CNN took the crown with 650,000 tuning in, compared to 416,000 for Fox News and 234,000 for MSNBC.
E! Network meanwhile released numbers that included its digital efforts; it said it garnered 111 million total engagements across TV, digital and social platforms, making it E!’s biggest event of 2018.
It’s interesting to compare the audience to the viewership of Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ nuptials in 1981. That event was watched in 14.2 million households out of a total 82.4 homes across just three national broadcast networks – the only outlets available at the time. The latest royal wedding was seen in 23.7 million homes, out of 126.2 million households in the country today. That means 17% of the American population saw Prince Harry’s parents marry; 19% tuned in for their son’s festivities (not counting digital engagement of course).
Watching it live took some commitment: The event took place took place between 7 and 8:15 am Eastern time; and 4 and 5:15 am on the West Coast, on a Saturday.
Nielsen’s total includes linear TV viewing on ABC and the Freeform simulcast; BBC America; CBS; CNN; CNNe; E!; Fox News Channel; HLN; MSNBC; NBC; PBS; Telemundo; TLC; and Univision.
Fox News said that it saw 2 million total viewers, compared to 1.92 million for CNN and 1.01 million for MSNBC. However, CNN captured the young adult audience ages 18 to 34 with 125,000 viewers; and in the key news demo of adults 25-54, CNN took the crown with 650,000 tuning in, compared to 416,000 for Fox News and 234,000 for MSNBC.
E! Network meanwhile released numbers that included its digital efforts; it said it garnered 111 million total engagements across TV, digital and social platforms, making it E!’s biggest event of 2018.
It’s interesting to compare the audience to the viewership of Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ nuptials in 1981. That event was watched in 14.2 million households out of a total 82.4 homes across just three national broadcast networks – the only outlets available at the time. The latest royal wedding was seen in 23.7 million homes, out of 126.2 million households in the country today. That means 17% of the American population saw Prince Harry’s parents marry; 19% tuned in for their son’s festivities (not counting digital engagement of course).
