23 Million Americans Watch Royal Wedding, Beating U.S. Audience For Charles And Di's; UK Viewership Can't Match 1981 Nuptials

UPDATE SATURDAY 7 PM: Almost 23 million viewers in the U.S. watched the coverage of the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton from 6AM to 7:15AM ET on Friday across 11 networks. That outpaces the estimated 17 million who tuned in for Prince Charles and Diana's wedding in 1981, which was carried by the Big 3 broadcast networks in the era before the proliferation of cable. According to Nielsen, the combined viewership for yesterday's nuptials was 22.77 million on ABC, CBS, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, BBC America, CNN, E!, FOX News, MSNBC and TLC. In households, the William-Kate wedding drew 18.6 million vs. 14.2 million for Charles-Diana. As for Charles' wedding to Camila Parker Bowles in 2005, it was watched by 3.65 million viewers. SATURDAY AM - Deadline's London Editor Tim Adler reports: Nearly 27 million British TV viewers watched the Royal Wedding live, according to the three main broadcasters of Friday?s event. That is still fewer than the 28.4 million who watched the 1981 wedding of Charles and Diana on BBC and ITV. The BBC peaked at 20 million viewers when Prince William and Kate Middleton exchanged vows; ITV peaked at 6 million; and Sky News at 661,000. Those watching on other channels ?- �Channel 4 and Five ?- made up only 1% of the Brit TV audience. The figures ... Read More »

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2011/04/so-how-were-the-royal-wedding-ratings/

Annie Potts Phyllis Povah Jane Powell Stephanie Powers Victoria Pratt