Prince William vs. His Parents: Whose Wedding Got Higher TV Ratings?

By Christine Fenno Posted May 1st 2011 10:02AM

A generation was glued to the television when Lady Diana Spencer walked down the aisle of St. Paul's Cathedral in London to marry Prince Charles in 1981.

But as the TV ratings come in for the Friday nuptials of their firstborn son, Prince William, there's no question about his enormous popularity in America.

Live coverage on 11 networks (starting 6 a.m. EST, and lasting more than an hour) of William and Kate's wedding at Westminster Abbey drew more than 18.5 million U.S. households, according to Nielson Media Research (via EW.com). Meanwhile, Charles and Diana's wedding drew an estimated household viewership of 14.2 million.

Without question, we like homegrown pomp and circumstance: President Obama's 2009 inauguration drew 28.9 million viewers -- but that event also didn't take place at the crack of dawn.

That means an awful lot of Americans tuned Friday in at 6 a.m. (or even earlier, depending on your time zone) to watch the live wedding of a royal Brit and his bride.

TV ratings for Prince Charles' second wedding, to Camilla Parker Bowles, were much weaker: 3.2 million U.S. households watched coverage of that 2005 event.

Tags: Kate Middleton, Prince William, Princess Diana

Comments

(30)

Sunday 01 May

By Pat

Highest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

I imagine there are 4 million more viewers in the past 30 yrs, dont you think?

By Nancy Davis

Vote down Vote up Report this

I was thinking the same thing.

By joan

I got up at 3 a.m. to watch this wedding and was so glad I did. It was absolutely beautiful and worth the early rise. It was also much nicer than the wedding of Charles and Diana as William and Kate definitely showed their feelings for each other in just the way they looked at each other. I remember watching the weddomg of Williams parents, and Charles was a cold fish (still is) and Diana looked nervous and scared. I do think however that Diana was looking down from the heavens above and was smiling and happy this time...

I meant wedding, sorry for misspell.

I agree, you could just feel Diana beaming with her gorgeous smile, you felt it everywhere.

By Donna

Joan why didnt you just DVR it. Instead of getting up so early.

By Charity

The statistic of more people watching the 2011 wedding vs. Charles & Diana's wedding is skewed, as a lot more people would have been able to watch the recent wedding due to not having to wake up really early to see it. DVR makes recording and watching later much more feasible than VCR did.

By MISS SWEET D

i didn't think i was going to watch this wedding, but i did and i could just feel the love these two share, more than charles and DIANA did. Charles was so stiff and robot like and poor Diana just didn't look as happy as Kate did i guess since she knew that her new husband's horsefaced mistress camilla was in the audience and it was really a forced marriage for charles.

By Pyrmom

Give Charles a break. You can't pick who you fall in love with, and who you lose your heart to. How amorous would you be if you were forced by monarchy standards to marry someone virginal because the woman you loved was considered unacceptable - and yes, he was in love with Camilla long before his marriage to Diana. His was a forced marriage, and it was as difficult on him as it was on Diana. And yes, what a difference marrying someone you love makes on the whole affair. I'm glad that William was given the chance to marry someone he loved and not someone that the crown considered acceptable. And in Charles' day, Kate would not have been considered acceptable - after all, she wasn't a virgin. I am glad that in the end Charles got the chance to marry his true love. I'm sorry that Diana had to suffer the price for an arranged marriage, but as she found out, life isn't a fairytale. But Williams seems to be a fine young man and Diana must be proud, and happy for him and his lovely new wife. She is smiling down on them for sure.

By UhHuh

@pyrmom: Which excuses how Charles treated Diana overall? If it was rough on both of them, fine. But how much do we excuse how he treated her before we just say that Charles was terrible to the woman?

By T

@pyrmom - Charles had the chance to marry Camilla, but wanted to date around. She gave up on him, and married someone else. They should have left each other alone after that. It is very much their fault that they continued an affair, and cheated on both spouses. If they had done it right, and only gotten together after both were divorced, I would still have respect for them. But they made bad choices, then thought they were above having to live with the consequences.

Pyrmom, do not agree with you at all. Charles at his wedding to Diana acted like he was doing her a favor to marry her. He is and always has been a pompour individual and had a relationship with a married woman, before, during and after his marriage to Diana. He inherited his greatuncle, the Duke of Windsors genes and tended to go after married woman. He deserves no sympathy for what he did to Diana. What is funny is after she had an affair she was asked by the Queen to divorce Charles. Queen Elizabeth certainly played favorites in that instance. He and Camilla deserve each other. And by the way Camilla hates being royalty. Too much pomp for her. Tough!!!

By tmf1977

I agree with PryMom. Pretty evident that Diana was hand-picked to marry Charles and there was absolutely no prior relationship which is in stark contrast to William and Kate. Personally, I think they make an amazing couple and I am so happy that the Royals didn't interfere with William choosing who to date and have a relationship with. I think the Queen learned quite a bit through Charles' and Diana's failed marriage.

By Kat2988

I got up also and glad i did, i wanted to watch it live, just not the same later!

By Mary

I got up and watched both weddings. Diana and Charles' wedding was stuffy and didn't seem to have joy during it. William and Kate's was relaxed and calm. I think everyone enjoyed themselves on Friday. Happy for William and Kate.

By the_fool

14 million plus viewers back in that day with a mix of regular analog (over the air) television and only some cable was a pretty good rating. Now you have tons of coverage over cable, the internet, phones etc.... and yes ... more people.

By Zero

Out of so many billions of people that's still minuscule.

By Bella T

High Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

I watched all the Royal Weddings! I love them! Charles and Diana's wedding was beautiful and exciting. Charles wedding to Camila was very touching. I was happy he finally got to marry his soul mate. Honestly I think those two got better with age. William and Kate are a modern day fairy tale. I think the fact that they are both in their late 20's is such a plus in this relationship. It was a glorious wedding, handsome groom, beautiful bridesmaid and all the attendents and guests were fun to watch! It makes me wish I was British!

By Russ

Guys,
I am VERY much surprised, well actually not; as to how "BELITTLING" everybody is here for something THIS IMPORTANT to two couples. Two very beautiful wedding; "BELITTLED" by a "fashion show". AND "whose was more watched".

I'm surprised that we all DID'NT see people selling "royal wedding" t-shirts, hot dogs and beverages, pop corn and all outside and inside the wedding ceremony. GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZZZZ.................

By GA

Anyone who knows anything about the TV industry and ratings knows that it's NielsEn and NOT NielsOn. So much for Christine's career....

Page 1 of 2