Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle drew more than 11 million viewers last night.
The much-publicised airing of Oprah at 9pm on ITV attracted a total audience of 11.4 million – some 54.4 per cent of all television viewers in the UK.
A staggering 12.3 million people were watching the interview at its peak last night, and the two-hour interview had an average of 11 million viewers during the 9pm-11pm slot.
The tell-all has become the biggest TV show of the year so far, beating Boris Johnson’s statement to the nation on January 4 which had 15.6million viewers.
But it failed to beat figures for I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!, which was the most watched programme of 2020.
During the second lockdown, millions tuned into the first ever UK-based series, with 12.1 million viewers watching Giovanna Fletcher be crowned series champion.
A staggering 12.3 million people were watching the interview at its peak last night
The wide-ranging two-hour special covered Meghan’s thoughts of suicide during her first pregnancy and claims of racism within the royal family
When Princess Diana was quizzed by Martin Bashir for the BBC’s Panorama programme in 1995, almost 23 million tuned in.
Data released this morning has revealed the interview also attracted a much younger profile than normal, with a 72 per cent share for adults aged 25-34.
This compare to the average 16.2 per cent of adults aged 25-34 who usually tune in at the same time.
Boris Johnson’s lockdown announcement on March 23 last year drew more than 14 million viewers.
The Prime Minister’s speech was simultaneously broadcast across six television channels: BBC One, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky News and BBC News.
On BBC One, the speech attracted 14.6 million viewers, but combined with the ratings across all six channels, the speech had a total TV audience averaging 28.2 million – large enough to rank as one of the most-watched broadcasts in UK television history.
The Queen’s televised address to the nation on April 5, during which she echoed Dame Vera Lynn’s wartime song and told the nation ‘we will meet again’, had a combined TV audience across seven channels of 24.3 million.
Meanwhile Mr Johnson’s second TV address delivered on May 10, during which he announced an initial easing of the lockdown in England, pulled in a combined audience of 27.6 million: slightly lower than his first speech, but still huge by historic standards.
A massive 18.8 million TV viewers saw this second speech just on BBC One, a figure which currently ranks as the largest audience for a single channel so far in 2020.
By way of a comparison, the Gavin And Stacey Christmas special – the most-watched programme of 2019 – pulled in a TV audience of 17.1 million viewers.
Television audiences numbering more than 20 million have become increasingly rare in the UK.
The biggest audience in the past decade for any broadcast on a single channel was 24.5 million, which was the number who watched the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
But excluding news and sport events, the biggest TV audience of the past decade was 17.7 million, set by an edition of The X Factor back in December 2010.
Figures quoted here are consolidated ratings, meaning they include people who recorded and watched a broadcast up to seven days later – the industry standard for measuring TV audiences.
The 1966 World Cup final is often cited as the most-watched broadcast in British history, with 32.3 million viewers, just ahead of Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997, but the method of calculating ratings has changed several times, meaning it is difficult to make like-for-like comparisons with this year’s figures.
A family gather around the TV in Liverpool to watch Prince Harry and his wife Meghan’s explosive interview on ITV
In the US, the interview pulled in 17.1 million viewers, and scored a rating of 2.6 among the 18-49 demographic, according to preliminary Nielsen numbers.
Advertising revenue during the 110-minute programme could double the £1million ITV paid for it.
ITV is thought to have sold some 30-second slots for as much as £120,000, double its usual rate, with others going for £70,000 to £100,000.
The current record for audience figures in the US is 90million – set when Oprah sat down with Michael Jackson in 1993.
It became the second most watched non-sports entertainment program in the US so far this year, behind the February premiere of Queen Latifah’s new drama, The Equalizer, which aired after the Super Bowl and pulled 20.4 million viewers.