Royal Wedding TV Ratings: 23 Million Americans Tune In

NEW YORK — Nearly 23 million Americans rose early on Friday to watch Prince William and Kate Middleton tie the knot.

The Nielsen Co. said the 22.76 million viewers were spread out over 11 different networks. The company's measurement was for the period of 6 a.m. to 7:15 a.m. EDT, when the ceremony was taking place.

Nielsen did not have an estimate of how many people watched worldwide.

Websites reported high traffic, too. ABCNews.com said it's online traffic Friday was its highest since the 2008 presidential election. And, E! Online said its 23.6 million page views on Friday was its most ever.

The wedding was telecast on ABC, CBS, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, BBC America, CNN, E! Entertainment, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and TLC.

Comments

[Citizen0]

10:32 AM on 05/13/2011

Sometimes you wonder if big wedding bashes are a form of soft porn.

[bigdgib]

11:44 AM on 05/03/2011

Power to the Sheeple!

[steve12]

08:19 PM on 05/02/2011

People have too much time on their hands. A wedding of a couple of rich white people, who are nearly half a world away, have as much effect on me as a mosquito does in Africa.

[tuliehowller]

08:38 PM on 05/02/2011

Like anyone cares what you think.

[Macready]

10:29 AM on 05/03/2011

duh . . . it was a great historical moment too bad you missed it

[seachange525]

03:39 PM on 05/02/2011

Okay, I admit, I wasn't even sure when the wedding was...I had avoided the media coverage that well. When I woke up Friday & realized the wedding was over, I was surprised to feel disappointment that I had missed it. (You see, all fairytale wishes for royal happily-ever-afters, died for me in that tunnel with Diana; why watch a fairy tale that can't come true?) I tuned in to the Royal Channel http://www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel and watched the video of the ceremony. From the first glimpse of the full gown, I knew Kate's taste was exquisite; then I watched her waving to the crowds repeatedly as she waited to enter Westminster Abbey--and I knew she paid attention to the people and responded; I listened carefully to the reading chosen and the prayer written by William and Kate and I felt that the fairytale we hoped would come true with Charles and Diana, has come true in this union. They have an enormous capacity to add love and beauty to this world.

[Hpotterfan77]

12:37 PM on 05/03/2011

Beautifully said.

[seachange525]

12:59 PM on 05/03/2011

Thank you. I am a Harry Potter fan, too (favorite character: Luna Lovegood), so I had to fan you :)

[Middleclassvotingbloc]

03:10 PM on 05/02/2011

The wedding was forced down the throats of tv watchers. One would need to turn the tv off in order to avoid watching. I turned the tv off.

[tuliehowller]

08:41 PM on 05/02/2011

I watched it live streaming on my computer...that said I did not realize the TV only had one channel these days. Silly me.

[Macready]

10:30 AM on 05/03/2011

nay not so . . . 23million happy people

[alexandra23]

12:46 PM on 05/02/2011

In light of the tornado disaster in the US, I think it was in very poor taste for all of the major media to focus virtually all of their attention on the royal wedding. Two very wealthy people getting married in another country apparently was more important than Americans suffering and dying in the US to the media.

[Hpotterfan77]

12:39 PM on 05/03/2011

While as a whole I agree that the tragedy down south was well worth as much tv coverage as possible, the wedding, in my opinion, allowed people to escape reality if only for a short time and sometimes, that's a good thing.

[d-lo]

11:29 AM on 05/02/2011

Of course there were big rating, it was the only thing on the networks. Aren't there 20 mil people watching 11 networks every day?

[FLgirl1]

11:41 AM on 05/02/2011

But not all watching the same program.

[nomobull]

11:56 AM on 05/02/2011

yes if that's all on

[tuliehowller]

08:42 PM on 05/02/2011

....more millions watched it on their computers.

[Charla Parton]

11:21 AM on 05/02/2011

I think trying to help my fellow Alabamians and my beloved college town recover from the disaster of all of those tornadoes Wednesday took precedent over some fairy tale wedding in England. I guess I should feel grateful, though, that, as a British contact of mine told me, had it not been for that wedding, the tornadoes would have been the top story in the UK Thursday as it was number two. Please, do not forget us and the rest of the Southeast as we continue to recover and mourn the lives lost.

[tuliehowller]

08:44 PM on 05/02/2011

....is the death of Osama dominating all the news media today OK?

[madashellvoter]

10:31 AM on 05/02/2011

PBS had the best coverage.

[tuliehowller]

08:45 PM on 05/02/2011

I liked the BBC live streaming coverage on my computer best.

[liltrapstar18]

10:29 AM on 05/02/2011

I watched it but I was annoyed that I woke up at 4am and the wedding didn't start until almost 6am

[dickn2000b]

10:17 AM on 05/02/2011

23 million is only 7.4 percent of the entire U.S. population. It seems most Americans had something better to do than waste their time watching this royal farce.

[marignymitch]

02:41 PM on 05/02/2011

Good news indeed. Thanks.

[tuliehowller]

08:46 PM on 05/02/2011

...millions more streamed it live on their computers.

[vitacin]

10:12 AM on 05/02/2011

I watched because it was a nice change of pace over constant bad news.

[Duppy]

08:08 AM on 05/02/2011

Wow, this is a bust ! More people watch American Idol by itself I think

[JAMBS]

04:14 AM on 05/02/2011

A testament to America's media powerhouses, arms of the Beast: American Broadcast Corporation, National Broadcast Corporation, Columbia Broadcasting System, CBS Radio, NBC Radio Networks and CNN's radio news services and the BBC