Millions of Britons were glued to their screens on the day of the Coronation of King Charles. Newly-released figures from research organisation BARB showed the audience in the UK peaked at 20.4 million just after midday, when the monarch was crowned. A breakdown of the figure shows the majority of people, 13.4 million, watched the event on BBC One, while 3.6 million people followed the Coronation via ITV and 1.5 million via BBC Two. These massive figures topped several other royal events, including the Platinum Jubilee concert held last June, the viewership of which peaked at some 13.4 million viewers, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding, dating back to May 19, 2018, which had a peak audience of 17.9 million in the UK.
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The service during which the King and Queen Camilla were crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the other hand, was watched by fewer people than the wedding of Kate, Princess of Wales and Prince William, which in 2011 was followed on TV in the UK by some 24 million viewers at its peak, and Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, which attracted more than 28 million viewers last September.
These huge figures suggest the interest in the Royal Family and the monarchy is still massive.
The release of the Sussexes’ Netflix docu-series Harry & Meghan last year, which included allegations against the Firm of unconscious bias and Palace briefings to the press against the Duke and Duchess, brought one source to wonder what the goal of the two California-based royals was.
They told the Daily Mail in December: “It looks as if they want to bring down the monarchy. What else could they hope to achieve by this? It was a sly and insidious attack from start to finish.”
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