CBS This Morning on Monday beat GMA and Today for the first time ever to top the morning show ratings thanks to bonus clips of Oprah’s chat with Harry and Meghan.
The program beat its closest rivals in both average total viewers and among adults 25-54 with 4.8 million total viewers tuning in for the bonus clips, AdWeek reports.
That was up 74% in total viewers from the previous Monday and marked the first time the show – hosted by Gayle King – has defeated the two other networks on one day since Nielsen started its records three decades ago.
Today had 3.177 million total average viewers; GMA brought in 3.351 million.
Worldwide viewership of Winfrey’s interview with the couple is up to nearly 50 million people – and counting – as CBS quickly scheduled a Friday night rerun for anyone who missed it the first time.
CBS This Morning on Monday beat GMA and Today for the first time ever to top the morning show ratings thanks to bonus clips of Oprah’s chat with Harry and Meghan
Worldwide viewership of Winfrey’s interview with the couple is up to nearly 50 million people – and counting – as CBS quickly scheduled a Friday night rerun for anyone who missed it
Just hours after the interview first aired on Sunday evening CBS This Morning on Monday shared more exclusive content from the chat and an interview with Oprah.
The show was anchored by King, Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil. Online it has racked up 21 million social video views.
It was during the morning show that Oprah confirmed it was not the Queen or Prince Philip who had made a racist comment about the couple’s son Archie.
Harry and Meghan said there was a ‘conversation’, before Archie’s birth, about his skin and how ‘dark’ it would be but did not say who had made the comments.
Oprah revealed on Monday morning that behind the scenes, Prince Harry told her it was neither The Queen nor Prince Philip who had concerns over Archie’s skin color before he was born, but he would not reveal the identity of who did.
In additional clips shown Monday morning Meghan also said she hadn’t seen her half-sister Samantha Markle for ’18 or 19′ years and they do not ‘know each other’
And Harry said the UK press was ‘bigoted’ – but not the UK public.
The Duke of Sussex also accused the Queen of snubbing him after she was allegedly overruled by royal aides when she tried to invite him and Meghan on a trip to Sandringham after they announced they were stepping down.
The global viewing estimate of 49.1 million viewers in 17 countries for the actual interview is sure to rise. Not all of the ratings are in, and CBS licensed the interview to air in more than 80 territories, the network said.
In the US, the interview was seen by 17.8 million people on CBS, the Nielsen company said. It aired a night later in Britain, where ITV said it had 13.3 million viewers, a huge number for a smaller country.
CBS said the interview will be shown again Friday, from 8 to 10 p.m.
Just hours after the interview first aired Sunday evening CBS This Morning on Monday shared more exclusive content from the chat and an interview with Oprah
It was still a topic of conversation on Tuesday.
In Britain, Piers Morgan quit the ‘Good Morning, Britain’ program following a furor over comments he made criticizing the Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.
He was dressed down by the show’s weather forecaster and stormed off the set.
Winfrey’s talk was the rare interview to exceed the hype. CBS had originally set aside 90 minutes for the broadcast but, after the interview actually took place, bumped it up to two hours.
The success is likely to have reverberations for the industry, perhaps most immediately bolstering broadcast television’s case that it is still a potent force for showing big events.
It might also have networks looking for more big-name interviews. They used to be a staple of prime-time broadcast television, but are seen much less frequently now.
In additional clips shown Monday morning Meghan said she hadn’t seen her half-sister Samantha Markle for ’18 or 19′ years and they do not ‘know each other’ Harry said the UK press was ‘bigoted’ – not the UK public
Some of the big names that used to chase such interviews, like Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters, have stepped away from the business.
Powered by Winfrey and royals, CBS won the week with an average of 6 million viewers in prime time. ABC had 3.5 million, NBC had 3.2 million, Fox had 2.5 million, Univision had 1.3 million, Ion Television had 1.1 million and Telemundo had 1 million.
Fox News Channel led the cable networks, averaging 2.37 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 1.88 million, TNT had 1.41 million, CNN had 1.25 million and HGTV had 1.11 million.
ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’ won the evening news ratings race with an average of 9.3 million viewers. NBC’s ‘Nightly News’ had 7.5 million and the ‘CBS Evening News’ had 5.5 million.